التحقيق في أداء المقطر الشمسي بإضافة وحدة معالجة مغناطيسية مع مواد متغيرة الطور ومجمع شمسي

Investigation of the Solar Still Performance by Adding Magnetic Treatment Unit with Phase Change Material and Solar Collector

Abstract

There are different energy sources may be used to conduct the process of distilling water, for the purpose of human use among those sources is the use of solar energy, as in this study. Also there are numerous techniques that may be used to improve the performance of the solar distillation system. In this study, a solar collector, a phase change material (PCM) and magnets are used for increasing the water production of the solar distiller.
The phase change material used in the current work is paraffin wax, which is one of the saturated hydrocarbon alkanes. The melting point of the paraffin wax used in this experiment is 42 degrees Celsius, and these specifications were measured in the laboratories of the University of Babylon.
The current study was conducted experimentally using a novel system which was designed and manufactured locally. This system mainly consists of a solar still, a water tank and secondary devices such as measuring instruments. While numerically, the study was done using Ansys software (2021 R1 version). This is to investigate an effect of the three techniques mensioned above on the water temperature, distiller base temperature. In addition to the vapor temperature, and internal and external temperature of distiller glass cover, efficiency and productivity of the solar distiller.
The results of experimental and numerical studies indicate that the applied technigues in this study could improve the solar distiller performance but with various degrees. This can be achieved by improving the productivity of the distiller by raising the temperature of water and thus obtaining the vapor quickly. The using of the solar collector is the best technique to achieve this aim compared to the paraffin wax and magnets. At the same time, the magnets utlising has a lesser role compared to the collector and paraffin wax. As for the paraffin wax effects comes in the middle between the collector and the magnets; it is better compared to magnets and less compared to the collector. Using the three techniques mensioned in above, collectively can raise the water temperature, still base temperature, vapor temperature, and internal and external temperature of distiller cover by roughly (24, 26, 16, 34 and 23) %. Thus, it (the use of all techniques collectively) can improve the efficiency and productivity of the solar distiller by 33% and 38%, respectively. This is by comparing to the usual case of the solar distiller (without any modification).
Practical experiments were conducted at the end of September to the end of October at specific times, starting from ( 8 ) in the morning until ( 5 ) in the afternoon, and in some experiments when putting ( pcm ) the time extended from ( 8 ) o’clock in the morning until ( 10 ) o’clock in the evening.
By comparing the experimental results of the present study with the numerical ones, a good agreement was noted between them. This comparison indicates that the current work are performed according to what was planned and in a way that ensures that errors were avoided as much as possible. This is achieved by repeating the experimental tests many times and days until stable and realistic results were obtained.
The most important reasons that made us choose this type of distillation, which is in the form of a tent, because it allows the entry of the largest amount of solar radiation entering the distillation basin, as well as for the ease of design.
And our choice of these dimensions came as a result of previous research, where the research indicated that most of the solar distillates range in dimensions from 1m2 to 1.5m2.