Experimental investigation of solar desalination in Algeria: Performance, economic feasibility, and climatic variability analysis of geothermal-integrated and glass-cooled solar stills

Yasmina Saada, Djamel Benmenine, Belkhir Settou and Zineb Korichi

Energy, 2025, vol. 333, issue C

Abstract: This study investigates the performance of three solar still configurations: Traditional Solar Still (TSS), Modified Solar Still 1 (MSS-1) with geothermal integration, and Modified Solar Still 2 (MSS-2) with a glass-cleaning mechanism, under three distinct weather conditions: clear and stable, intermittent solar and wind variability, and high wind influence with solar fluctuations. Experimental results show that MSS-1 outperformed the other systems, achieving the highest daily freshwater productivity of 4.17 L/m2, compared to 3.08 L/m2 for MSS-2 and 2.89 L/m2 for TSS. Under fluctuating solar conditions, MSS-1 recorded a peak energy efficiency of 43.67 %, surpassing MSS-2 (36.96 %) and TSS (32.48 %), with exergy efficiency of 4.24 %, compared to 1.41 % for MSS-2 and 1.39 % for TSS. The economic analysis revealed that MSS-1 had the lowest cost per liter (CPL) at $0.0091/L and a payback period of 70.67 days, outpacing TSS ($0.0101/L, 78.25 days) and MSS-2 ($0.0104/L, 73.24 days). Furthermore, incorporating real climatic data for 8760 h revealed that 75 % of the year is favorable, improving the accuracy of long-term productivity forecasts. MSS-1 achieved an annual water yield of 1522.37 L/m2, compared to 1055.37 L/m2 for TSS and 1127.57 L/m2 for MSS-2. These findings highlight the significance of considering real-world weather conditions in solar desalination design to improve efficiency, economic feasibility, and reliability.

Keywords: Solar desalination; Geothermal integration; Climatic variability; Glass cooling; Economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225025174
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:333:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225025174

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136875

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().