Experimental Study of the Effects of Air Bubbling in a Cascade and Pyramidal Solar Distillers

Abstract. The results of a study on the ability of air pumping to create bubbles in seawater in a solar distiller are presented. For this purpose, two identical cascade-type distillers and two identical pyramid-type distillers were built. In each case, one distiller was used without air pumping, and the other was used with air pumping. The seawater temperature inside each distiller, ambient temperature, solar irradiance, and weight of the obtained distillate were measured. The experimental tests were repeated over 10 days. As a result, with the cascade-type distillers, an average increase of 13.6% more distillate was obtained in the distiller with air pumping. Likewise, with pyramid-type distillers, an average of 14.2% more distillate was obtained. The analysis of the distilled water volume against the incident solar energy shows an almost linear dependence, with a steeper slope for the bubbling distiller. Finally, it was verified that the quality of the obtained water is suitable for human consumption, except for the pH, which needs to be corrected.