Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213

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Groundwater for Sustainable Development

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Research paper

Improvement of glass solar still performance using locally available T

materials in the southern region of Algeria
B. Nasria,b,c,∗, A. Benatiallaha,b, S. Kallouma,b, D. Benatiallaha,b
a
Ahmed Draïa University in Adrar, Adrar, 01000, Algeria
b
Laboratory of Energy, Environment and Information Systems, Ahmed Draïa University, Adrar, Algeria
c
National Agency for Hydraulic Resources, PO Box 364, Adrar, 01000, Algeria

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Limited resources and increased water demand associated with fast socio-economic development and expansion
City of Adrar in the irrigated land in southern Algeria have led to overexploitation of groundwater and caused a significant
Glass basin water table drawdown as well as groundwater quality degradation due to saline water intrusion. Solar dis-
Local material tillation is an interesting alternative source for producing drinking water from brackish water for the purpose of
Productivity
supplying isolated communities in remote areas. The present seeks to improve the performance of a glass solar
Solar still
still through increasing the productivity of freshwater by the use of different new absorbers, such as gravel,
polyethylene, and sand, as heat storage systems. The solar distiller under study was fabricated with cheap glass
and healthy materials, and was tested under the climatic conditions of the City of Adrar, in the Southern part of
Algeria, where solar energy and underground saline water are abundant. The experimental results show that,
gravel produces the highest quantity of fresh water, i.e. 5 L per m2 per day, followed by black polyethylene with
4.48 l/m2/d and then sand with 3.84 l/m2/d. It is interesting to note that the daily freshwater productivities of
gravel and black polyethylene are, respectively, 32.20% and 16.67% higher than that of sand. In addition, it was
found that gravel is the best absorber and has the highest productivity as compared to the other absorbers. The
solar radiation intensity is quite high; the maximum value was found equal to 1131.013 W/m2. Moreover, the
quality of water is reflected in its Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) level which is of the order of 21.247 mg/l from feed
water with a TDS content of about 3062.60 mg/l. Hence, the efficiency of the solar still is approximately 99.30%.

1. Introduction
Clean drinking water is essential to life. The social and economic
development of any nation depends heavily on this substance. Human
life would not be possible without potable or fresh drinking water
(Hansen and Murugavel, 2017). Indeed, fresh water remains a pressing
concern throughout the entire world. Today, the provision of clean
water to meet the growing water demands for agriculture, industry, and
households is becoming increasingly difficult for a large number of
countries.
Over the last few years, the problem of freshwater scarcity has be-
come one of the main challenges all over the world. Potable water is an
indispensable element for life; water in general is widely employed in
industry and agriculture. Though more than 70% of the earth surface is
covered with water, only 1% of that amount can directly be used by
human beings and other living organisms. On the other hand, it is worth
knowing that about 97.5% of water on our planet Earth is salt water,
part of which can be treated and converted to distilled water (Rahbar
and Esfahani, 2012; Kabeel, 2009). Algeria is one of the countries most
affected by freshwater shortage since the year 2007. This problem has
been partly solved in the northern part of the country through the in-
stallation of several seawater desalination units; however, the southern
region, where water scarcity is becoming increasingly critical, is still
suffering from the shortage of that substance; this is particularly ex-
perienced in the arid zones.
The City of Adrar is located in southwestern Algeria. The last few
years have witnessed a rapid increase in its population and a remark-
able expansion of its irrigated land and industrial development. This
situation has led to overexploitation of groundwater, and consequently,
caused a huge water table drawdown. In addition, groundwater quality
degradation has become a serious issue in this region as water salinity is
growing. Nowadays, modern technology offers some sophisticated

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: bnasri14@gmail.com (B. Nasri), benatiallah.ali@gmail.com (A. Benatiallah), kalloum_sli@yahoo.fr (S. Kalloum),
djellouldhw@gmail.com (D. Benatiallah).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2019.100213

Available online 21 March 2019

2352-801X/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
B. Nasri, et al.
techniques, such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis,
for water purification. Unfortunately, these techniques are generally
costly and require a lot of energy consumption.
Solar desalination technology can be used to produce fresh water
from brackish water for the purpose of supplying isolated, sparse, low-
density populated areas in the Algerian Sahara where solar energy and
underground saline water are abundant (Sellami et al., 2017). Solar
stills are cheap and necessitate low maintenance costs but can produce
only small amounts of fresh water (Duffie Jone and Beckman William,
2013).
Solar distillation of brackish water is a practical and interesting
option that can offer life to those regions where the lack of fresh water
hinders development. In the Algerian arid zones, people have always
relied on underground water reservoirs for their fresh water needs;
however, the quality of water from such sources is not always good due
to the presence of salt (Boukar and Harmim, 2005).
The Algerian territory is a particularly sunny area, especially its
Sahara desert, which is considered as the region most exposed to the
sun in the world (Nasri et al., 1968). This territory may benefit from
between 2500 and 4000 h of sunshine per year. The City of Adrar enjoys
a substantial amount of solar radiation with long sunshine hours, high
ambient temperature and high solar radiation intensity (7 kwh/m2/
day) (Benatiallah et al., 1968). Solar energy is abundant, renewable,
pollution-free and available on-site. Solar stills are the simplest solar
distillation units. They are cheap and need low maintenance but most of
them suffer from low productivity and poor efficiency (Kaushal, 2010).
Water resources in the southwestern part of Algeria are limited, and
groundwater is sometimes the only source of fresh water available for
the inhabitants of the region. In the Algerian Sahara, drinking water is
mainly supplied by groundwater reservoirs from the aquifers of the
Terminal Complex and Continental Intercalary (Albian water), which
are located in the western part of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer
System (NWSAS), better known under the acronym SASS for its French
name “Système Aquifer du Sahara Septentrional” (SASS) (Sekkoumet al.
Ning, 2012).
The freshwater supplies in these regions come essentially from the
groundwater of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS).
This huge aquifer, which is shared by Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia,
contains considerable but partly renewable water resources.
The North-Western Sahara Aquifer System extends over a vast area
of more than one million km2, with seven hundred thousand (700 000)
km2 in Algeria, eighty thousand (80 000) km2 in Tunisia and two
hundred and fifty thousand (250 000) km2 in Libya. This aquifer con-
sists of a complex superposition of layers, with the two main ones lo-
cated in two different geological formations, namely the Continental
Intercalary (CI or Albian) and the Terminal Complex (TC). The ex-
ploitation of this system dates back to several years; this was done first
through the direct exploitation of the water sources, and then through
the construction of surface wells and foggaras, depending on the
structural contexts, and later through deep drills, which sometimes
exceeded one thousand (1000) meters of depth in some cases
(Observatoire du Sahel et Sahra OSS, 2014).
The intensive use of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System
(NWSAS) by the three countries (8800 water points; drillings, wells,
sources, and foggaras) has caused growing stress on that precious re-
source, thus increasing the risks of saltwater intrusion and salinization,
loss of artesian pressure, depletion of natural outlets and lowering of
the water table. The NWSAS zone covers different eco-regions, ranging
from desert areas with an annual rainfall rate lower than 100 mm and
an evapotranspiration rate higher than 3000 mm, to arid areas with an
annual rainfall between 100 and 200 mm and an evapotranspiration
rate between 2000 and 2500 mm (CEDARE, 2014).
During the second half of the 20th century, the use of groundwater
from the NWSA system increased considerably, which resulted in a
significant increase in water demand that went from 0.6 to 2.5 billion
m3/year in the three neighbor countries (OSS, 2008).
2
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213
The evolution of intense water withdrawal from the aquifers of the
North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) has exposed the entire
region to major risks such as strong inter-country interference, dis-
appearance of artesian water, drying up of natural outlets (foggaras),
increased depth to water due to excessive pumping, and water salini-
zation (5.2 g/l) (OSS, 2003).
Numerous efforts have been made by researchers around the world
to enhance the productivity of passive solar stills whose performance
could be improved by achieving the adequate modifications in the still
design and selecting the most suitable operating parameters
(Voropoulos et al., 2004; Ahsan et al., 2014). Note that the external
cooling of the glass cover was used for the purpose of increasing the
solar still productivity. Similarly, several authors suggested a thin film
of water flowing over the external glass cover (Arunkumaret al., 2012).
On the other hand, Harris Samuel et al. (Harris Samuel et al., 2016)
made an attempt to improve the thermal efficiency of a solar still using
encapsulated salt as a thermal energy storage material. The results
obtained showed that if the surface area of water in the basin is in-
creased while using salt as a heat storage material, then the fresh water
productivity can be enhanced; it may be up to 133% higher than that
obtained with a conventional basin type solar still. In addition, the
study revealed that using salt and sand as heat storage materials, during
night time, allowed achieving yields equal to 0.5 kg/m2 and 0.3 kg/m2,
respectively. Similarly, Rajaseenivasan et al. (2016) carried out a the-
oretical and experimental study on the performance of a glass basin
solar still equipped with an integrated preheated water supply. They
found out that the presence of charcoal in fins allowed augmenting the
total distillate output of the system up to 3.61 kg/day. Moreover,
Elango and Murugavel (2015) presented a new approach to enhance the
solar still productivity by introducing glass as the basin material. Single
and double basin double slope solar stills with identical basin area were
fabricated using glass. It turned out that the single basin solar still
productivity is more than the productivity of a double basin solar still
during the hot period. Kabeel et al. (2018) succeeded in improving the
fresh water productivity and thermal performance of a conventional
basin-type solar still using a sensible heat storage material fixed on jute
cloth wrapped over the entire surface of the basin, with different masses
of water. The results obtained suggest that the production of fresh water
depends on a number of parameters such the mass of sensible energy
material and the depth of water in the basin. The quantities of fresh
water produced by the solar still when using the smallest amount of salt
water (mw = 20 kg), with and without jute cloth fixed on sensible heat
storage material, were found equal to 5.9 and 5 kg/m2, respectively.
Phadatare and Verma (2007) conducted an experimental study on the
performance of a single-slope single-plastic basin solar still. The side-
walls of the still were made up of 3 mm thick black acrylic sheets and
insulated with 2.5 cm thick glass wool, with 2 cm depth of water in the
distiller. The maximum distillate production of the still was 2.1 l/m2/
day.
Phase change materials (PCMs), also called latent heat storage
materials, may also be used for thermal energy storage, building
heating and cooling applications (Hansen and Murugavel, 2017). The
Latent heat storage technique provides much higher energy storage
density, with a small temperature difference between storing and re-
leasing heat. These materials are quite advantageous for their low cost,
high-energy storage density, and isothermal operating characteristics.
Phase change materials may be employed for the production of
distilled water using solar energy. They are used as a bridge to cross the
difference between the energy source and the distillation unit
(Gugulothu et al., 2015). To do this, Sellami et al. (2017) carried out an
experimental work on the performance of a solar still using an addi-
tional inner heat storage system, while covering the absorber surface
with some blackened sponge layers. The result obtained showed that a
0.5 cm thick sponge layer increases the yield by 58%. However, a
1.0 cm thick sponge layer resulted in a yield improvement of only
23.03%. Ouar et al. (2017) investigated the effect of using a 0.5 cm
B. Nasri, et al.
thick layer of bitumen, 100 g of charcoal and 10 drops of black Chinese
ink per liter of brackish water, on the performance of the solar still
under the local climatic conditions of the City of Ouargla, in Algeria.
They reached the conclusion that bitumen, charcoal and black ink can
improve the water distillate output by 25.35%, 18.42%, and 6.87%,
respectively, as compared with a conventional solar still. For their part,
Kabbel and Abdelgaied (Kabeel and Abdelgaied, 2016) inquired ex-
perimentally the effect of adding paraffin wax as a phase change ma-
terial (PCM) for storing energy in order to enhance the performance of a
solar still through the increase in freshwater production. They found
out that the daily freshwater productivity of a solar still with a phase
change material (PCM) was 67.18% higher than that obtained with a
conventional solar still. Furthermore, the solar still integrated with a
PCM is more interesting in terms of daily freshwater production, with
67%–68.8% improvement, as compared to a conventional solar still.
Similarly, El-Sebaii et al. (2009) developed a mathematical model for a
single-basin solar still, with and without phase change material (PCM)
placed under the basin liner of the still. The solar still performance was
investigated by computer simulation. The numerical calculations were
carried out, using stearic acid as a phase change material. The effect of
the PCM mass on the daytime and nighttime productivity and efficiency
of the still, for different masses of basin water, was also investigated.
The findings indicated that the daytime productivity decreased when
the PCM mass increased, but the overnight productivity and daily
productivity significantly increased when the PCM mass rose; this may
be attributed to the greater amount of heat stored within the PCM.
Sellami et al. (2016) investigated experimentally the effect of using
equal masses of Portland cement and alluvial sand for the purpose of
improving the yield of a conventional solar still. They achieved a pro-
ductivity gain of 39.70% by adding 300 g of the cement; this gain was
approximately equal to 31.61% when a mass of 200 g of the mixture
was employed. Moreover, they found out that the addition of 100 g of
cement increases the yield by 25.49%. However, a cement layer of
400 g enhanced the yield by only 33.08%.
For their part, Dashtban and Tabrizi (2011) carried out an experi-
mental analysis on a weir-type cascade solar still, integrated with a
latent heat thermal energy storage system. This solar still was designed
with the view of enhancing its productivity, by placing an 18 kg and
2 cm thick layer of paraffin wax beneath the absorber plate for keeping
the operating temperature of the still high enough to produce distillated
water in the absence of sunlight, particularly at night. In addition, they
developed a theoretical model for the solar still, with and without PCM,
and then they compared the results obtained with the experimental
ones. They concluded that the daily solar still productivity was theo-
retically equal to 6.7 and 5.1 kg/m2/day, with and without PCM, re-
spectively. These findings allowed concluding that the productivity of
the still with PCM was theoretically 31% higher than that without PCM.
Also, a phase change material (PCM) was added to a concentrator
coupled hemispherical basin solar still, in order to augment its effi-
ciency and improve its distillate yield. Two modes of operation were
investigated experimentally by Arunkumar et al. (2013); the first one
concerned a single-slope solar still without the phase change material,
and the second involved a single-slope solar still with the PCM. The
experimental results indicated that when the thermal storage material
was integrated into the concentrator-coupled hemispherical basin solar
still, the productivity was increased by 26%. Therefore, it may be
concluded that productivity is significantly higher as a result of in-
tegrating the PCM into the solar still. On the other hand, Srivastava and
Agrawal (2013) investigated experimentally the effect of placing porous
fins into the basin of a conventional solar still supplied with black wick
material. The results obtained show that the temperature of water is
about 25% smaller than that of the conventional distiller. Also, the
productivity yield in summer and winter was 30 and 45% higher, re-
spectively. In addition, an increase in fresh water yield of about 22.2%
was observed when the depth of water decreased from 0.04 to 0.03 m.
The present article aims at assessing the performance of a single
3
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213
basin solar still, using healthy materials that are locally available; it also
makes an attempt to ensure a good quality of distilled water production,
without any contamination by iron derivatives. This system was en-
tirely fabricated with cheap locally available glass. The experiments
were conducted in order to study the effect of sand, polyethylene, and
gravel as sensible heat storage materials for the purpose of increasing
the absorbency of the basin, and consequently enhancing the fresh-
water productivity of the solar still. Moreover, the effect of different
environmental and operational parameters on the still productivity was
inquired as well. The environmental parameters include the solar in-
tensity and ambient temperature.
2. Experimental methodology
2.1. Solar still description
The solar still under study is fabricated with cheap 4 mm thick glass.
The desalination system consists of a basin painted black inside, with
different absorbers, i.e. gravel, black polyethylene film and sand as
sensible heat storage materials, to ensure maximum absorption of solar
irradiance. The basin area is 0.50 m × 0.50 m (0.25 m2). It is enclosed
by a 4 mm thick glass top cover. The side and bottom walls of the basin
are covered by an insulation material, such as a 4 cm polystyrene layer,
in order to prevent convective heat losses. The assembly reposes in a
16 mm thick wooden box. The entire solar still is kept along the north-
south direction in order to take in maximum solar radiation, at 10°
inclination relative to the horizontal. As shown in the figure below
(Fig. 1).
With the aim of increasing the solar still yield, different local ma-
terials, such as gravel, black polyethylene film and sand, were used as
heat storage materials. The experiments were carried out to determine
whether the output of the solar still can be ameliorated by improving
the performance of its absorber using the following materials.
➢ A black polyethylene film, about 2 mm thick, placed inside the still.
➢ A layer of sand washed with distilled water, about 1 cm thick and
mass 4 kg, put in the still tray.
➢ A layer of gravel washed with distilled water, about 1 cm thick and
mass 3 kg, laid in the still.
The experiments were conducted during a three-day period, under
the same meteorological conditions, in the region of Adrar in Algeria,
with a small variation in the solar intensity and ambient temperature
throughout that period. Fig. 2 shows the photograph view of the dif-
ferent absorbers used in the glass solar still.
The distiller was fed in brackish water by means of a galvanized
steel tank of 10 l capacity. The distillate water was collected in the
distillate collector at the end of the roof. Silicone was employed to
ensure good sealing between the different constituents of the distiller.
Fig. 3 shows a schematic drawing of the solar still under consideration.
Fig. 1. Photograph view of the glass solar still under study.
B. Nasri, et al. Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213

Fig. 2. Photograph view of different absorbers.

2.2. Experimental setup and procedure Table 1

Chemical characteristics of saline and distilled water samples.
The experiments were conducted between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Physico-chemical Distilled Saline Yield of WHO drinking-
with a time interval of 30–60 min (measurement intervals), during the parameters water water treatment water quality
month of June of the year 2017, in Adrar, a city located in southwestern output input (%) guidelines
Algeria; its geographical coordinates are 27° 53 North and 0° 16′ West.
pH 6.83 7.52 99 6.5–8.5
The experimental system was oriented along the north-south direction
EC (μs/cm) 16 4910 99.674 2800
to receive maximum solar radiation during the test days. The tem- TDS (mg/l) 21.247 3062.60 99.306 1000
peratures of the main components of the still, namely water and glass TH mg/l (CaCO3) 10.317 977.80 98.945 500
cover, were measured by calibrated K-type thermocouples. The K&Z Cl− ( mg/l) 6.417 1233.80 99.480 250
CMP21-type pyranometer was used to measure the global horizontal SO24− (mg/l) 6.417 903.90 99.290 250

solar radiation in W/m2. The ambient temperature (Ta in °C) was NO−3 (mg/l) 0.908 27.65 96.715 50

measured with a Campbell CS215 temperature probe. These data were

collected from the enerMENA Meteorological Network Station at the
Renewable Energy Research Unit in the Saharan Environment
(URERMS) in Adrar. A calibrated beaker with graduations ranging from
0 to 1000 ml, with ± 10 ml accuracy, was employed for measuring the
quantity of fresh water. The water depth in the solar distiller was fixed
at 1.5 cm; the conductivity and pH values were measured in situ using a
WTW 31.5i conductivity meter and a WTW 31.5i pH meter. The other
physicochemical parameters, such as the total dissolved solids (TDS),
total hardness (TH), as well as chloride (Cl−), sulfate (SO24−) , and ni-
trate (NO−3 ) contents were evaluated at the Laboratory of the National
Agency for Hydraulic Resources (ANRH), located in the City of Adrar.
The physical and chemical analysis results of groundwater, before and
after distillation, are summarized in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
The characteristics of the measured solar irradiance versus time are
shown in Fig. 4. This figure clearly suggests that the solar intensity
increases during the morning and reaches a maximum value of
1131.013 W/m2 at 01.00 p.m. during the month of June. It also shows
that solar irradiation is more intense from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., whereas it
is less intense after 5 p.m.
Fig. 5 illustrates the variation of the ambient temperature over time.
It is clearly seen that the temperatures increase during the morning
hours to reach a maximum value of 42.47 °C at 01.00 p.m. The variation
of the temperature depends on the variation of the solar irradiation.
After 2.00 p.m., the ambient temperature gradually decreases along
with the solar energy intensity. It can easily be noticed that the tem-
perature remains high even after 07.00 p.m., which favors condensation

Fig. 3. Cross section of the solar still.

4
B. Nasri, et al.
Fig. 4. Variation of global solar radiation during the test days.
Fig. 5. Variation of ambient temperature during the test days.
even after 20.00 p.m.
Fig. 6 depicts the hourly variation of drinking water production
when the three absorbers, namely sand, polyethylene, and gravel, are
incorporated into the still. The daily solar still productivity was found
equal to 3.84, 4.48 and 5 l/m2/day for sand, polyethylene and gravel,
respectively. The accumulated water productivity of the solar still was
increased by 30.20% and 16.67% when gravel and polyethylene ab-
sorbers were used, as compared to that of sand. It can also be seen that
gravel is the best absorber and gives the highest productivity (max-
imum distillate output of 5000 ml/m2/day) as compared with the other
absorbers.
Fig. 7 displays the distribution of hourly distillate productivity for
the different absorbers used in the still basin during the experimental
day. Note that the production rate was not uniform throughout the
Fig. 6. Variation of fresh water productivity for the solar still integrated with
different absorbers.
5
Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213
Fig. 7. Evolution of hourly distillate productivity with time, for different ab-
sorbers.
Fig. 8. Variation of basin water temperature for various absorbers.
experiment. The productivity of solar still was maximal at 01.00 p.m. It
is obviously inferred that the hourly solar still productivity with gravel
is higher than that obtained with sand and polyethylene.
Fig. 8 depicts the experimental results of the hourly variation of
basin water temperature for different absorbers used in the basin of the
solar still. It turned out that gravel could attain the highest basin water
temperature value (82.2 °C) at 2.00 p.m.; it is followed by polyethylene
for which the basin water temperature was found equal to 79.9 °C at
2.00 p.m. As for sand, the maximum water temperature was 69.3 °C at
about 2.00 p.m.
Fig. 9 shows the evolution of glass temperature with different ab-
sorbers used in the solar still basin. It can easily be observed that the
cover glass temperature, when using polyethylene, is higher than that
Fig. 9. Hourly variation of glass cover temperature of the solar still using dif-
ferent absorbers.
B. Nasri, et al. Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213

recorded with gravel or sand. This can certainly be attributed to the i

radiation reflected towards the glass cover by polyethylene. It is clear
from this figure that the difference (Tw-Tg) between the temperature of
water and that of glass is important with gravel than with polyethylene
and sand, which engenders a higher freshwater productivity.
3.1. Water quality analysis
The samples of treated saline water and distilled water obtained
from the solar still were subjected to chemical analysis and the results
are shown in Table 1. These findings suggest that the distilled water is
safe to drink and complies with the World Health Organization (WHO)
standards and guidelines (WHO. World Health Organisation, 2011). It is
worth pointing out that the water obtained from the solar still is very
poor in mineral salts, and therefore two volumes of distilled water are
to be mixed with one volume of brackish water in order to obtain three
volumes of useable fresh water; this would give an additional volume of
912.5 l/m2/year.
3.2. Cost estimation of solar still
Solar stills for rural communities in remote areas must be designed
with the lowest cost possible; it should also be made with locally
available materials. The global cost estimate for various components of
a solar distiller with the current prices in the study area is estimated at
10 000 DZA (74.21 Euro); however, the actual manufacturing cost is
6300 DZA (45.4 Euro). Table 2 presents the effective cost for the fab-
rication of a distiller (see Table 3).
SSF =
( i+ 1)n − 1 (5)
Similarly, the annual maintenance cost (AMC) was defined in
(Rahbar and Esfahani, 2012). Only the absorber layer is changed in the
experiments.
The annual maintenance cost is expressed as:
AMC = 0.05 × (FAC) (6)
Accordingly, the total annual cost of the still is determined as:
AC = FAC + AMC − ASV (7)
Finally, the cost per liter (CPL) of fresh water production is given as:
AC
CPL =
M (8)
Where M is the mean annual production (Rashidi et al., 2017).
Admitting that the daily production is 5 l per day during the whole
year (during the winter period the production is negligible as it is
limited to three months only, i.e. January, February and March with a
productivity of 3 l/m2/day), then the annual production is equal to
1825 l/m2/year. Note that the price of a liter of distilled water on the
market is 30 DZA (0.22 euro), but the price of 1 L of distilled water in
our case is 0.72 DZA (0.0052 Euro). In other words, producing distilled
water using a glass solar still with local materials is 42 times cheaper
than that produced by other means, such as electricity which is pro-
duced by fossil energy.
3.4. Comparative analysis with previous studies

3.3. Cost analysis Table 4 presents a comparison between the glass solar still, devel-
oped in the present study, and some other solar stills previously de-
Rahbar and Esfahani (2012) calculated the first annual cost (FAC) of veloped by other authors (Sellami et al., 2017; Rajaseenivasan et al.,
a solar still as follows: 2016; Elango and Murugavel, 2015; Ouar et al., 2017; Sellami et al.,
2016; Sellamiet al., 2013). The results presented in the table below
FAC = P(CRF), (1) suggest that our findings are in good agreement with those of other
where CRF is the capital recovery factor and P the capital cost of the investigations.
solar still. The capital recovery factor is defined as (Rahbar and
Esfahani, 2012; Rashidi et al., 2017). 4. Conclusion

i( i+ 1)n An experimental study was carried out in the present article on a

CRF =
( i+ 1)n − 1 (2) novel solar still, using different absorbers, such as sand, polyethylene,
where (n) and (i) are the interest rate of lending banks and the lifetime and gravel.
of the still, respectively. The lending interest rate of banks is fixed at The distillate yields obtained with these three absorbers were
17% in Algeria, and the average lifetime of the still is twenty years. compared. It turned out that the highest distillation output in the solar
Moreover, the first annual salvage value (ASV) of the still is given by still was obtained with gravel; it was found to be 30.20% higher than
the following expression as (Rashidi et al., 2017): those of sand and polyethylene. In addition, the solar still productivity
with polyethylene was 16.67% higher than that obtained with sand.
ASV = (SSF)*S (3) Furthermore, the daily distillate productivity of the still integrated
where S is the salvage value of the still and SSF is the sinking fund with gravel was 5000 ml/m2 per day for a collecting area of 0.25 m2;
factor. The value of S was calculated by Rashidi et al. (2017) as: however, with black polyethylene, the productivity was 4480 ml/m2
per day and with sand 3840 ml/m2 per day. In addition, the TDS value
S= 0.17 × P (4)
of the water produced by the still was found around 21,247 mg/l from a
However, SSF is expressed as (Rashidi et al., 2017): feed water of TDS equal to 3062,60 mg/l, which represents an im-
provement in water treatment performance of 99.30%.
Table 2
Effective costs of components. Acknowledgements
Material Quantity Cost in Algerian Cost in Euro
Dinars (DZA) (100 = 15 000 DZA) The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their
careful reading of this manuscript and their helpful and constructive
Cheap ordinary glass 2 m2 1000 7.21
comments that greatly contributed to improving the final version of the
Polyethylene 1 m2 800 5.76
Sand 5 kg Free article. Their gratitude extends also to the Editors of the Journal of
Gravel 5 kg free Groundwater for Sustainable Development.
Wooden chest 2 m2 3000 21.62
Accessories and 1500 10.81 Nomenclature
workforce
Total cost per m2 6300 45.4
AC Total annual cost

6
B. Nasri, et al. Groundwater for Sustainable Development 9 (2019) 100213

Table 3
Cost analysis of cheap glass stills.
Type (n) (i) CRF P S FAC SSF ASV AMC AC M CPL (€/l/m2) CPL (DZA)

Glass solar still 10 0.17 0.21 45.4 7.72 9.53 0.04 0.30 0.43 9.66 1825 0.0052 0.72

Table 4
Comparison between our results and those obtained in other works.
Reference Solar still Absorber Daily freshwater output (kg/ Increase in daily productivity
m2 ) (%)

Sellami et al. (Sellamiet al., 2013) Conventional solar still Alluvial sand 4–6 27.43–43.51
Sellami et al. (Sellami et al., 2016) Conventional still Portland cement – Alluvial sand 4.08–5.70 25.49–39.70
Elango and Murugavel (Elango and Murugavel, Glass solar still Black coating 4.40–5.32 17.38–41.14
2015)
Rajaseenivasan et al. (Rajaseenivasan et al., 2016) Glass basin solar still Sand – Metal scrap – Charcoal 3.46–3.61 26.74–33.7
Ouar et al. (Ouar et al., 2017) Conventional solar still Bitumen– Charcoal – Black ink 4.166–4.644 6.14–18.32
Sallami et al. (Sellami et al., 2017) Conventional still Blackened sponge 2.135–4.809 23.03–57.77
Present study Glass solar still Black polyethylene – Sand - 3.84–5 16.67–32.20
gravel

AMC Annual maintenance cost Dashtban, M., Tabrizi, F.F., 2011. Thermal analysis of a weir-type cascade solar still in-
ANRH National Water Resources Agency tegrated with PCM storage. Desalination 279 (1), 415–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.desal.2011.06.044.
ASV Annual salvage value Duffie Jone, A., Beckman William, A., 2013. Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes, 4th
CPL Cost per liter Edition. Canada. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
CRF Capital recovery factor El-Sebaii, A.A., Al-Ghamdi, A.A., Al-Hazmi, F.S., Faidah, A.S., 2009. Thermal perfor-
mance of a single basin solar still with PCM as a storage medium. Appl. Energy 86 (7),
DZA Algerian Dinar 1187–1195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2008.10.014.
EC Electrical conductivity Elango, T., Murugavel, K.K., 2015. The effect of the water depth on the productivity for
FAC Fixed annual cost single and double basin double slope glass solar stills. Desalination 359, 82–91.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2014.12.036.
i Interest rate %
Gugulothu, R., Somanchi, N.S., Reddy, K.V.K., Gantha, D., 2015. A review on solar water
IC Intercalary continental distillation using sensible and latent heat. Procedia Earth and Planetary Science 11,
M Mean annual production (L) 354–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeps.2015.06.072.
Hansen, R.S., Murugavel, K.K., 2017. Enhancement of integrated solar still using different
n Lifetime of the still (years)
new absorber configurations: an experimental approach. Desalination 422, 59–67.
NWSAS North-Western Sahara Aquifer System https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2017.08.015.
P Capital cost Harris Samuel, D.G., Nagarajan, P.K., Arunkumar, T., Kannan, E., Sathyamurthy, R.,
PCM Phase change material 2016. Enhancing the solar still yield by increasing the surface area of water—a re-
view. Environ. Prog. Sustain. Energy 35 (3), 815–822. https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.
pH Hydrogen potential 12280.
S Salvage value Kabeel, A.E., 2009. Performance of solar still with a concave wick evaporation surface.
SASS Système Aquifère du Sahara Septentrional Energy 34 (10), 1504–1509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2009.06.050.
Kabeel, A.E., Abdelgaied, M., 2016. Improving the performance of solar still by using PCM
SFF Sinking fund factor as a thermal storage medium under Egyptian conditions. Desalination 383, 22–28.
TC Terminal complex https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2016.01.006.
TDS Total dissolved salts Kabeel, A.E., El-Agouz, S.A., Sathyamurthy, R., Arunkumar, T., 2018. Augmenting the
productivity of solar still using jute cloth knitted with sand heat energy storage.
Tg Glass temperature Desalination 443, 122–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2018.05.026.
TH Total hardness Kaushal, A., 2010. Solar stills: a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14 (1), 446–453.
Tw Water temperature https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.05.011.
Nasri, B., Benatiallah, A., Kalloum, S., Benatiallah, D., 1968. Experimental study of solar
URERMS Renewable Energy Research Unit in the Saharan still using local material in south of Algeria. AIP Conference Proceedings 1 030024
Environment 1–10, May 2018. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5039211.
WHO World Health Organization Observatoire du Sahel et Sahra OSS, 2014. Agricultural demonstration pilots in the SASS
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