Clean Water Production Enhancement through the Integration of Small-Scale Solar Stills with Solar Dish Concentrators (SDCs)—A Review

Mohd Fazly Yusof, Mohd Remy Rozainy Mohd Arif Zainol, Andrei Victor Sandu, Ali Riahi, Nor Azazi Zakaria, Syafiq Shaharuddin, Mohd Sharizal Abdul Aziz, Norazian Mohamed Noor, Petrica Vizureanu, Mohd Hafiz Zawawi and Jazaul Ikhsan
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Mohd Fazly Yusof: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Mohd Remy Rozainy Mohd Arif Zainol: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Andrei Victor Sandu: Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 61 D. Mangeron Blvd., 700050 Iasi, Romania
Ali Riahi: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Nor Azazi Zakaria: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Syafiq Shaharuddin: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Mohd Sharizal Abdul Aziz: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
Norazian Mohamed Noor: Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Arau 01000, Perlis, Malaysia
Petrica Vizureanu: Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 61 D. Mangeron Blvd., 700050 Iasi, Romania
Mohd Hafiz Zawawi: Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia
Jazaul Ikhsan: Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta 55183, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-27

Abstract: The conventional solar still, as a water treatment technique, has been reported to produce water at a low working temperature where various thermal resistance pathogens could survive in their distillate. In this work, the reviews of previous research on the quality of water produced by passive solar stills and their productivities in initial basin water temperatures were first presented and discussed. The next review discussed some recent studies on the performances of small-scale solar stills integrated with SDCs (with and without sun-tracking systems (STSs)) to observe the operating temperatures from early hours until the end of operations, daily water yield, and cost per liter. Based on these findings, it was revealed that SDCs with STSs indicated an instant increase in the absorber water temperature up to 70 °C at the starting point of the experiments in which this temperature range marked the unbearable survival of the pathogenic organisms and viruses, particularly the recent SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, disinfection was also observed when the absorbers’ water temperature reached beyond the boiling point until the end of operations. This indicates the effectiveness of SDCs with STS in reflecting a large amount of sun’s rays and heat to the small-scale absorbers and providing higher operating absorbers temperatures compared to immobile SDCs. Daily productivities and costs per liter of the SDCs with STSs were found to be higher and lower than those of the other previous passive and active solar stills. Therefore, it is recommended that small-scale absorbers integrated with SDCs and STS can be used as a cost-effective and reliable method to produce hygienic pathogen-free water for the communities in remote and rural areas which encounter water scarcity and abundant annual bright sunshine hours.

Keywords: solar distiller; water temperature; pathogens removal; rural areas; sun-tracking system; cost-effective water production; water scarcity; SARS-CoV-2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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