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Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with
black nanoparticles

Article in Alexandria Engineering Journal · September 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014

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Alexandria Engineering Journal (2017) xxx, xxx–xxx

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via

absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles
A.E. Kabeel a,*, Z.M. Omara b, F.A. Essa b, A.S. Abdullah c,a, T. Arunkumar d,
Ravishankar Sathyamurthy e

a
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
d
Institute for Energy Studies, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
e
Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Received 15 March 2017; revised 8 July 2017; accepted 22 August 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract Effects of utilizing nanomaterial on the solar still productivity investigated experimen-
Nanomaterial; tally. Cuprous oxides (CuO) chosen as a nanoparticles material. The nanoparticles added to the
Solar still; black paint of the solar still walls to enhance the solar still performance. Experiments conducted
Distillation; with cuprous oxide nanoparticles weight concentrations ranged from 10% to 40%. It is found that
Nanoparticle adding nanoparticles to paint increase heat transfer rate and saline water temperature. Solar still
productivity of the proposed system is higher than that for the conventional still. Results acquired
that utilizing CuO nanoparticles boosted the distillate by 16% and 25% as compared to the conven-
tional solar still (CSS) at weight fraction concentration of 10% and 40%, respectively. Payback per-
iod of the distillation system for the modified still using CuO nanomaterials is about 96 days, at
weight fraction 10%, which is considerable as compared by 89 days for CSS.
Ó 2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting 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/).

1. Introduction treatments for brackish or salt water. Distillation using solar

stills is one of the most primitive forms of water treatment that
Water drinking availability is decreasing day by day; while the collaborates in solving the water problem. As known well,
water-drinking requirement is increasing quickly. While most solar stills have many advantages: simple, cheap, pollution
of earth’s surface is water, freshwater is very limited in lakes, free, and negligible maintenance expenses. However, the pro-
rivers, and underground. Hence, getting water of drinking is ductivity of fresh water of CSS is limited as investigated by
main problems through all universes due to shortage, pollu- researchers. In addition, thermal efficiency of CSSs is about
tion, and salt concentration. Then, people have to make some 35–40% with a daily productivity about 3–4 l/m2 d [1]. Much
theoretical and experimental works were conducted to enhance
* Corresponding author. the solar still performance [2].
E-mail address: kabeel6@hotmail.com (A.E. Kabeel). Xiao et al. [3] investigated operating and climate conditions
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria influencing the solar still production. Climate conditions
University.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
1110-0168 Ó 2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting 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/).
Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
2 A.E. Kabeel et al.
include incident solar irradiation, wind velocity and tempera-
ture of surrounding. While, the operating conditions include
coated material, temperature difference between water and
glass cover, water depth, and insulation.
Lomascolo et al. [4] presented a review about the main
results available in the scientific survey for heat transfer of
nanofluids. Specifically, they dealt with the important results
of experimental works acquired in the scientific community
for convection, conduction and radiation in nanofluids.
What’s more, the influences of nanoparticle (material, shape,
size and volume concentration) and base fluid (of additives,
clustering, and temperature) were discussed.
Syam et al. [5] estimated experimentally ethylene glycol
thermal conductivity and mixture of water based Al2O3 and
CuO nanofluids at various temperatures and volume concen-
trations. The base fluid was a mixture of 50:50% (by weight)
of ethylene glycol and water. In addition, the concentration
up to 0.8% and range of temperature from 15 °C–50 °C were
tested. They indicated that Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids
obtained higher thermal conductivity compared to base fluid.
In addition, the thermal conductivity of CuO nanofluidis more
compare to Al2O3 nanofluid, under same temperatures and
volume concentrations.
Addition ofsuspended solid-sized nanoparticles to a specific
fluid called nanofluid. The heat transfer characteristics of the
base fluid changed because of the new additions of nanoparti-
cles. Distillation efficiency rises by about 29% when mixing
violet dye with the water in the experimental work by Nijmeh
et al. [6]. The solar heater performance with the new additions
of SiO2, CuO, TiO2 and Al2O3 nanofluids studied numerically
by Faizal et al. [7]. They estimated that 8625 kg, 10239 kg,
8618 kg and 8857 kg total weight for 1000 units of solar hea-
ters can be saved for SiO2, CuO, Al2O3 and TiO2 nanofluid,
respectively. Koilraj et al. [8] completed an experimental test
rig to study the effect of adding carbon nanotubes to the basin
water on the yield of a vacuum still. In recent times, Kabeel
et al. [9] examined the effect of providing vacuum inside the
conventional still with adding an external condenser on fresh
water production of the tested still. The authors’ investigations
also concluded the influence of using nanofluid on the tested
still performance. They concluded that providing vacuum
increases the water productivity by around 53.2%. While
116% was the enhancement percentage of water productivity
because of using nanofluid. In another study for the same
authors, Kabeel et al. [10] made experimental comparisons
between using the solid nanoparticles of CuO and Al2O3 with
various concentrations (by weight fraction) to optimize the
performance of the solar still. Their results obtained that using
CuO nanoparticles, as well as Al2O3 nanoparticles, increased
the fresh water production by around 125.0%, 88.97%,
133.64%, and 93.87%, without and with operating the vacuum
fan, respectively.
External condenser and internal reflectors integrated with a
corrugated wick solar still (CrWSS) was examined by Omara
et al. [11]. Influence of utilizing various types of nano materials
on CrWSS performance also investigated and compared with
the conventional still. Their results indicated that adding of
both an external condenser and reflectors to CrWSS improve
its productivity. In addition, the distillate of CrWSS with
reflectors using providing a vacuum improved by around
180% higher than the conventional still. The productivity of
the system enhanced using Al2O3 and CuO nanoparticles by
Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
approximate percentages of about 254.88% and 285.10%,
respectively.
The aim of this study is to improve the freshwater yield of
the conventional still by utilized black paint mixed with nano-
materials for the basin walls. Where, nanomaterials increase
the heat transfer rate between the basin water and walls of still.
2. Experimentation
Fig. 1 shows a schematic graph of the experimental test rig.
The test rig consists of a tank of saline water, a modified solar
still (MSS) and conventional solar still (CSS). They are identi-
cal in specification, dimensions and the fabricated material of
galvanized iron sheets. The two fabricated solar stills have a
single basin with an effective area of 0.5 m2 (0.5 m
width  1 m length) for each. For each still, the height of high
side and the low-side walls is 44 cm and 15 cm, respectively.
The stills were made of galvanized sheets with 1.5 mm thick.
The surfaces of conventional solar still coated with black paint
from inside to improve their absorptivity, while those of mod-
ified basin coated with black paint mixed with the nanomate-
rial (copper oxide) nanoparticles. In addition, the two stills
well insulated with wool to decrease the heat losses. The two
basins covered with 3 mm thick glass sheet inclined with 30°
on horizontal (Latitude of Kafrelsheikh, Egypt). Silicon used
to prevent any leakage of water vapor anywhere to outside
of basins.
The main saline water tank was utilized to feed the saline
water through the main line which was branched into two lines
of feed water to the basin stills as shown in Fig. 1. The conden-
sate distilled water was collected in a graded container as
shown in the figure.
Experiments under weather condition of Kafrelsheikh,
Egypt conducted for 3 days for each concentration (10, 20,
30, and 40%) and the average value taken during September
2014 to test the performance of the stills. Wind velocity, tem-
peratures and solar radiation measured using the instruments
of digital air flow/volume meter, thermocouples (K-type) and
solarimeter, respectively. Solar radiation measured on tilted
glass cover.
Specifications of the used nanomaterial tabulated in
Table 1. The performance of MSS with the new addition com-
pared with CSS. Experiments were done on MSS utilizing CuO
nanoparticles mixed with the black paint at concentration
(weight fraction) ranged from10% (100 g of nanomaterials to
one kg of black paint) to 40%.
3. Error analysis
System performance depends on several parameters measured
during experimentations. Brine, glass cover, surrounding tem-
peratures, wind velocity, total incident solar irradiation and
amount of freshwater are the parameters evaluate the perfor-
mance of stills. All temperatures measured utilizing the cali-
brated thermocouples (copper constantan type) with an
accuracy of ±0.5 K. The total insolation was measured by
the solar power meter ranged from 0 to 5000 W/m2 (±1 W/
m2 Accuracy). The accuracy of the van type anemometer mea-
suring the wind speed was ±0.11 m/s. A regulated flask of 2 l
capacity (5 ml accuracy) utilized to measure the hourly fresh
water production.
Augmentation of a solar still distillate 3

Fig. 1 Lay-out diagram of the experimental setup.

Table 1 Specification of the Cu2O nanoparticle.

Chemical symbol Density Thermal conductivity Specific heat Average particle size
3
Cu2O 6320 (kg/m ) 76.5 (W/m
K) 42.36 J/mol
K 10–14 (nm)

100 1200
Hence, in measurements, the estimation of the uncertainty Basin water temperature
calculated with the help of procedures explained by [12]. The Conventional still
90 Modified still
maximum uncertainty of about 2.2% not exceeded during 1000
Solar radiation
the experimentations.
80

Solar radiation, W/m2

4. Results and discussion 5/9/2014 800
Temperature, oC

70

At different days of experimentations, the speed of wind varied 60 600

from 0.15 to 5 m/s and solar irradiation varied from 30 to
1100 W/m2. The modified still performance is tested; using
50
black paint mixed with cuprous oxide nanomaterials. MSS 400
performance assessed and compared with that of CSS.
40

4.1. Solar radiation and temperature variation Outside glass temperature 200
30
Conventional still
Modified still
Figs. 2 and 3 show the hourly variation of solar irradiation on 20 0
condensing cover of solar stills at weight fraction concentra- 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
tion of 10% and 40%, respectively. The hourly variations of Time, h
glass and brine water temperature are show in the same figure.
The temperature of ambient air increases with increase of solar Fig. 2 Hourly temperature variations and solar radiation for the
irradiation and decreasing trends observed during off-sunshine conventional still and modified still with cuprous oxide at weight
hours, Fig. 4. It observed that all the temperatures conform to fraction concentration of 10%.
the variation in solar radiation on the sample day. The values
of glass and brine water temperature of MSS with CuO are Addition of nanoparticles helps to absorb more heat than
higher than those of CSS at all time. From Fig. 2, the glass that without nanoparticles. This is because the heat transfer
temperature and basin water temperature of modified solar properties especially the thermal conductivity of either
still are higher than that of conventional still by about 0– nanofluids or basin walls is superior. Evaporation and produc-
1.5 °C and 0–3 °C, respectively at weight fraction concentra- tion rates are better in modified still using nanofluids than that
tion of 10%. While, From Fig. 3, the glass temperature and of a conventional still due to increasing the heat transfer rate
basin water temperature of modified solar still are higher than and water temperature due to the existence of nanofluids.
that of conventional still by about 0–2.5 °C and 0–5.5 °C, Finally, the modified still productivity when using the
respectively at weight fraction concentration of 40%. nanoparticles is greater than that without the nanoparticles.

Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
4 A.E. Kabeel et al.

100 1200 4.2. Distillate productivity variation

Basin water temperature
Conventional still
90 Modified still The production of fresh water varies as time passes from the
1000
morning until late afternoon. As expected, the hourly fresh
80 Solar radiation water is maximum in the afternoon hours when the solar irra-

Solar radiation, W/m2

26/9/2014 800 diation is at its daily peak. For a MSS with CuO and CSS,
Temperature, oC

70 Fig. 5 is draw for productivity and time. The freshwater of

the solar stills varies directly with the solar irradiation. The
60 600 hourly production of freshwater is maximum in afternoon
hours when the solar radiation is at its daily peak.
50 Fig. 5 indicated that the hourly freshwater rate is increased
400
a huge in MSS than CSS. This is due to increase in temperature
40 of water that caused due to the particles of studied nanomate-
200
rial. The solar irradiation is absorb by the black painting inside
Outside glass temperature
30 the bottom of the basin of CSS and thus increases the temper-
Conventional still
Modified still ature of saline water. In the modified still, the freshwater pro-
20 0 duction increases further because of the increase in heat gain
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 for vaporization of water in MSS because the nanomaterials
Time, h increase the heat transfer rate between the basin water and
walls of still. As a result, the amount of fresh water collected
Fig. 3 Hourly temperature variations and solar radiation for the in MSS is higher and hence the increase in daily productivity
conventional still and modified still with cuprous oxide at weight by 16% when compared with CSS for the same basin area.
fraction concentration of 40%.
4.3. Daily productivity

100 5 Comparison of the daily production (24 h for three experi-

Ambient teperature ments days) for both conventional still and modified still with
90 Wind velocity cuprous oxide is tabulate in Table 2. In addition, Fig. 6 shows
4 a comparison between the hourly-accumulated distillate varia-
80 tions of freshwater from 9 am to sunset for MSS and CSS. It
Ambient temperature, C

5/9/2014
o

indicated that the amount of accumulative production for

Wind velocity, m/s

70 MSS with cuprous oxide is higher than that of CSS at all time,
3
where the hourly freshwater production is higher for MSS. As
60 shown in Table 2, the distillate reaches 4250 and 3650 ml/m2

2
50
1200
40
1 Conventional still
30 1000 Modified still
Productivity, ml/m2.h

20 0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 800
Time,h 5/9/2014

Fig. 4 Hourly variations of ambient temperature and wind 600

velocity.

400
It is acquire from Figs. 2 and 3 that the temperature and
solar irradiation profiles have the same behavior and trend.
They have small values in the early morning hours and after- 200
noon hours and have a maximum value around midday hours.
The experiments were done on the stills using CuO nanoparti-
cles mixed with the black paint at weight fraction concentra- 0
tion (weight fraction) ranged from 10% to 40%, (10% 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
means 100 g of nanomaterials to one kg of black paint). In Time,h
addition, variations of ambient temperature indicated in
Fig. 4, hourly wind velocity variation indicated in the same Fig. 5 Variations of fresh water productivity for the conven-
figure. tional still and modified still with cuprous oxide at weight fraction
concentration of 10%.

Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
Augmentation of a solar still distillate 5

Table 2 Accumulated productivity for three experiments days, at weight fraction 10%.
Date Average daily weather conditions during experimental period Daily productivity ml/m2 day Daily productivity
rise %
Solar intensity Ambient temperature Wind speed Conventional still Modified still
(W/m2) (°C) (m/s)
5/9/2014 616 30.3 1.2 3650 4250 16.4
7/9/2014 607 29.8 2.3 3500 4050 15.7
10/9/2014 600 29 1.8 3400 4000 17.6

7000 30

6000
25
Accumulated distillate, ml/m2

Conventional still

Increase in productivity, %
5000 Modified still

20
4000 5/9/2014

15
3000

2000 10

1000
5

0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Time,h 0
10 20 30 40
Fig. 6 The accumulative variations of fresh water for conven- Weight fraction concentration, %
tional still and modified still with cuprous oxide at weight fraction
concentration of 10%. Fig. 7 Effect of nanoparticles concentrations on the daily
productivity.
day for MSS with cuprous oxide and conventional still, respec-
tively at 5/9/2014, and the improve in daily production for
modified still with cuprous oxide is about 16% higher than
Table 3 Fabricated Costs of MSS and CSS.
that for conventional still.
Units Cost of MSS with Cu2O Cost of CSS
4.4. Nanomaterial concentrations nanomaterial (US$) (US$)
Iron Sheet (1.5 mm thick) 30 30
Glass Cover 5 5
Effects of nanoparticles concentrations on the daily productiv-
Paints and silicon 10 10
ity shown in Fig. 6. The experiments conducted in the weight
Insulation 5 5
concentrations range from 10% to 40% for cuprous oxide Support legs 10 10
nanoparticles. Fig. 7 shows that the increase in production Ducts and hoses 10 10
as a percentage increases with increasing the nanoparticles Production 25 25
concentration. Because, increasing the nanomaterials concen- Nanomaterials 25 –
tration increases the heat transfer rate between the basin water Total fixed costs (F) 120 95
and walls of still. In addition, the figure indicated that utilizing
CuO nanoparticles increases the freshwater productivity by
about 16% and 25% at weight fraction concentration of
10% and 40%, as compared to CSS. nance, operating costs and the feed water cost are the
parameters affecting the payback period of the system.
5. Payback analyses Cost of the distilled water per liter is taken as 0.357 $, which
is the available local market price for one liter of water.
Cost estimation for different components utilized in the pre- Cost of distillate/day for CSS = daily productivity  cost
sent distillation system given in Table 3. Fabrication, mainte- of water per liter = 3  0.357 = 1.071 $.

Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
 6 A.E. Kabeel et al.
Cost of distillate/day for MSS with CuO at weight fraction
of 10% = 3.5  0.357 = 1.25 $.
Payback period (conventional still) = investment/net
earning = 95/1.071 = 88.7 = 89 days.
Payback period (modified still) = investment/net
earning = 120/1.25 = 96 days.
6. Conclusions
Influences of using nanomaterial on the solar still production
experimentally investigated. Results presented in this context
concluded in the following:
1. Evaporation and production rates are better in modified
still using nanoparticles than that of a conventional still
due to increasing the heat transfer rate and water tempera-
ture due to the existence of nanoparticles.
2. Using cuprous oxide gave an average of 25%increasesfor
water produced compared with CSS, at weight fraction
concentration of 40%.
3. The payback period of the distillation system for MSS
when using CuO nanomaterial is about 96 days, at weight
fraction of 10% as compared by 89 days for the conven-
tional still.
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Please cite this article in press as: A.E. Kabeel et al., Augmentation of a solar still distillate yield via absorber plate coated with black nanoparticles, Alexandria Eng. J.
(2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.08.014
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