Impact of Floating Wick Material With Enhanced Thermal Conductivity on Freshwater Production: An Experimental Study on Double Slope Solar Desalination System

Abstract Solar desalination systems offer a sustainable solution for potable water production in regions with abundant sunlight. This study investigates the performance of a double-slope solar desalination system (DSSDS) by incorporating a novel floating wick material with enhanced thermal conductivity. The data were collected from conventional DSSDS (CDSSDS) and modified DSSDS (MDSSDS) with three distinct floating wick conditions, namely, the floating cotton wick without nanoparticles (MDSSDS1), with aluminum nanoparticles (MDSSDS2), and with Copper nanoparticles (MDSSDS3). The experimental trials were conducted on four clear sunny days for each condition at Surampalem (latitude 17.0895 ° N, and longitude 82.0667 ° E), Andhra Pradesh, India, between April 2024 and June 2024. To ensure the reliability of data collection, these 4 days of data were averaged, and the average values were used for further calculations. The hourly freshwater production of CDSSDS has been compared with the standard reference equation and found well-accepted range of ±10.23% deviations between them. The average increase in Nu values of MDSSDS3, MDSSDS2, and MDSSDS1 is 49.12%, 40.11%, and 35.06% higher than the Nu value of CDSSDS, respectively, demonstrating that the inclusion of metal particles in cotton cloth improves heat transfer. The average increase in the value of Sh by 49.35%, 38.56%, and 15.62% compared to CDSSDS for MDSSDS3, MDSSDS2, and MDSSDS1, respectively, indicates that the inclusion of metal particles also improves mass transfer.