Developments in Solar Still Desalination Systems: A Critical Review

Abstract

Solar still desalination uses a sustainable and pollution-free source to produce high-quality water. The main limitation is low productivity and this has been the focus of intensive research. A major concern while increasing productivity is to maintain economic feasibility and simplicity. The authors present a critical review of the research work conducted on solar stills development. Studies addressing each parameter of concern are grouped together and results compared. Novelty in design and newly introduced features are presented. Modeling efforts of flow circulation within the still and methods to estimate internal heat transfer coefficients are discussed and future research needs are outlined.

KEY WORDS:

• design
• modeling
• solar still
• productivity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research and the Middle East Desalination Research Center, Oman, for financially supporting this work.