A novel solar desalination system equipped with thermoelectric generator, reflectors and low-cost sensible energy-storage for co-production of power and drinking water

The present study aimed to improve the efficiency of the solar desalination unit by employing mirrors, waste material as a heat storage material, and thermoelectric generator by waste heat from the absorber sheet. Two mirrors were used to reflect the solar radiation into the absorber sheet and enhance the water temperature. The iron scraps painted in black color as a heat storage media were immersed to the basin of the solar still to raise the evaporation rate. Two thermoelectric generators (TEG) were attached under the basin to commute the loss of thermal energy of the absorber sheet to electrical power. The experiments were carried out for conventional solar desalination (CSS), solar still using TEG (SS-TEG), solar still using TEG and iron scraps (SS-TEG-WI), and solar still using TEG, iron scraps and mirrors (SS-TEG-WI-M). The results showed that the freshwater produced by CSS, SS-TEG, SS-TEG-WI, and SS-TEG-WI-M was 0.64 L/m2, 0.63 L/m2, 0.652 L/m2 and 0.796 L/m2, respectively. Also, the CO2 removal of the SS-TEG-WI-M improved by 24.5 %. Moreover, the daily power output of SS-TEG, SS- TEG-WI, and SS-TEG-WI-M was 2.13 W, 2.17 W, and 2.5 W, respectively. In addition, the SS-TEG configuration had the highest cost per liter (CPL) of 0.075 $/L.