Effect of different carbon types on a traditional solar still output.

One of the biggest issues that humanity faces is access to drinking water particularly in isolated and desert regions like southern Algeria. This region is characterized by high salinity water and high solar radiation as well; so, here, solar desalination is the most appropriate solution to obtain pure water. To contribute to solving the problem, five similar solar stills were installed in aim to increase their performance by using four different types of carbon namely: activated carbon, graphite, coal and wood charcoal which they are added separately within each absorber with the same weight 100g (i.e., 0.4167 kg carbon/m2 of absorber area). The results obtained during experiments at Ouargla University show that the various types of carbon enhance water absorption to solar irradiation. Moreover, placing carbon powder inside the fixed black cloth led to the stability of the carbon particles on the base of absorber avoiding them to float above the water, which contributed to the increase of the daily yield. Activated carbon, graphite, coal and wood charcoal improved the output by 79.39%, 57.58%, 50.30% and 18.18%, respectively relative to the baseline case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]