A new maritime lifesaving multiple-effect solar still design Original Research Article

This paper presents a new maritime lifesaving multiple-effect solar still design where several extended wicks feed seawater to their evaporating areas by capillary force, and the resulting water vapor diffuses and condenses on facing wicks with the condensate flowing through the wicks into storage bags. A theoretical analysis showed that a temperature drop through diffusion layers between evaporating and condensing wicks slowly increases in the main evaporating areas and rapidly near salt depositions whereas the evaporation rate decreases slowly in the main area and rapidly near salt depositions. These changes are caused by increases in salt concentrations and resulting boiling point elevation. With steady-state transfer analysis, the proposed still is predicted to produce about 15 kg m −2d−1 fresh water on a sunny day of 22 MJm−2d−1 solar radiation, showing a potential to be a maritime lifesaving desalinator.