Abstract
Abstract
Conventional raw water treatment methods are expensive and require a sufficient energy supply for their operations. In remote and rural areas, these conventional methods are feasible due to a poor economy and interrupted power supply. This study provides a sustainable approach to treating raw water using solar energy and phase change material (PCM). Passive solar stills (SS) are sufficient to treat water in the presence of solar radiation, and we can increase the yield and quality of distillate water by using calcium chloride hexahydrate as a phase change material. Moreover, PCM-based solar still is also advanced by adding activated charcoal (AC) for the removal of fluoride from the raw water. The efficiency of the solar still was assessed for the eight parameters: yield (Y), fluoride (F), total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH), chloride (Cl). Through the number of water quality assessments, it was found that SS with PCM can reduce (%) the TDS (85%–100%), EC (90%–100%), pH (0%–15%), TH (90%–95%), TA (75%–90%), and Cl (80%–100%) and can increase the yield by 10%–15%. SS with PCM and AC also showed good removal of F from raw water. In addition to that, a statistical analysis was also carried out to understand the effect of different climatic factors on the performance of solar stills.