Optimal concentration of high thermal conductivity sensible storage materials (graphite) for performance enhancement of hemispherical distillers
Mohammed El Hadi Attia, A.E. Kabeel, Mohamed Abdelgaied, Abdelkader Bellila, Moataz M. Abdel‐Aziz
Abstract
ABSTRACT The present manuscript aims to obtain the optimum concentration of high thermal conductivity storage materials (graphite) that achieve the highest performance of the hemispherical distillers. In order to achieve the optimal graphite concentration, three hemispherical distillers were designed and built. The first is a conventional hemispherical solar still (CHSS) which represent the reference distiller and the second and third are modified hemispherical solar stills (MHSS) containing graphite in different concentrations of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 140 g/L. The pilot test was performed over 6 consecutive days, in each day two different concentration was tested in second and third MHSS and compared them with the reference distiller (CHSS) under the same ambient conditions. The experimental results show that the 35 g/L graphite concentration represents the optimum concentration that achieves the highest performance of hemispherical distillate. The use of graphite with a concentration of 35 g/L (MHSS-35) gives a cumulative yield of 7.37 L/m 2 /d with an improvement of 93.94% compared to the reference distiller (CHSS). Also, the daily efficiency of (MHSS-35) is 72.12% with an improvement of 91.66% compared to the reference distiller (CHSS). The results concluded that when using storage materials sensitive to high thermal conductivity (graphite), their concentration should not exceed 35 g/L, so productivity would almost stabilize after this concentration, so there is no need to waste money and time.