Effectiveness of thermal energy storage material and forced convection on the regeneration of liquid desiccant using hybrid solar still-An experimental study

Hybrid solar still has been investigated to desalinate the saline water and regenerate the weak liquid desiccant. An influence of thermal energy storage material (waste pieces of black granite) and forced convection (12 V direct current fan) was studied in terms of the water desorbed from the weak liquid desiccant and distilled water output from the saline water in two cases of the experiment. A 40% weight concentrated calcium chloride for Case-I and a 42% weight concentrated lithium chloride for Case-II as a weak liquid desiccant were used for the study and flown over the upper basin, whereas a saline water depth of 1 cm was maintained in the lower basin. The total daily desorbed water for Case-I was 761.33 ml/m2 and 796.00 ml/m2 for Case-II from the weak liquid desiccant. The total daily distillate output achieved for Case-I was 302.67 ml/m2 and 284.00 ml/m2 for Case-II. An increase in the concentration of liquid desiccant for Case-I was 2.42% and 1.37% for Case-II. When hybrid solar still will be used as a regenerator in the liquid desiccant-based solar cooling system, the regenerated liquid desiccant can able to adsorb the latent heat load of 0.1251 kW/d for Case-I and 0.1304 kW/d for Case-II from the humid air. For the bright sunshine hours, the daily average overall efficiency of 20.98% for Case-I and 27.76% for Case-II was obtained for the hybrid solar still.