Enhanced Solar Desalination Using Natural Dolomite-Integrated PCM and MWCN Thermal Storage: An Experimental Study

Systems for solar desalination provide a practical and environmentally friendly way to turn salty or polluted water into drinkable water. Three configurations are experimentally investigated in this study: a traditional solar desalination system, a system integrated with a thermal energy storage unit (TESU) based on phase change material (PCM), Multi wall Carbon nano Tube were mixed with PCM at 2% of total volume of the PCM and a system that incorporates powdered natural dolomite/MWCNT at 1% each into the PCM-based TESU. Each of the four configurations was created, tested simultaneously, and thoroughly examined. In comparison to the Standard Still (SS), the experimental findings showed that the adoption of PCM-based TESUs increased daily cumulative water output (collection efficiency) by 24%, 26% with addition of MWCNT and the addition of dolomite powder/MWCNT further increased productivity by 27%. The average exergy efficiencies for for SS, SS with PCM, SS with nano enriched PCM, and SS on PCM with MWCNT/dolomite were 1.02%, 1.25%, 1.34% and 1.6%, respectively compared to SS without PCM.