Comparative study on productivity of double slope solar still using different wick and energy storage materials

[Display omitted] •Using solar energy driven compact system for obtaining sustained fresh water.•Doubleslope solar still (DSS) is used with different wick materials and energy storage materials for improving water productivity.•DSS performance was compared for different wick and energy storage material combinations to find the optimum performance.•Sponge wick material and copper energy storage material provide better performance than the other studied wick and energy storage materials.•The maximum daily efficiency was found to be 51% while using DSS with a sponge and copper combination. The aim of the proposed study is to evaluate the efficiency of Double Slope Solar Still (DSS) using different wick and energy storage materials. In the study, wick materials such as jute, cotton and sponge were used in combination with energy storage materials such as mild steel, cast iron and copper. The experiments were conducted using DSS with different combinations of wick and energy storage materials to determine the efficient performance combination. The results show that sponge and copper have higher efficiency with wicks and energy storage materials. The results show that the maximum amount of water produced in a single day was 3147 ml when the DSS system was used with a combination of sponge and copper materials. This range shows an increase of 17.47 % and 12.44 % over the DSS with jute and copper and the DSS with the combination of cotton and copper respectively. The DSS showed the highest average energy efficiency when used in conjunction with a combination of sponge and copper, namely 51 % of the average efficiency. This corresponds to an increase of 18.60 % and 10.86 % compared to the combination of DSS with jute and copper and the combination of DSS with cotton and copper respectively. The best evaporation heat transfer coefficient of 345 W/m2K was determined for the combination of DSS with sponge and copper. Average exergy efficiency is also maximum of 3.076 % for the DSS with sponge and copper materials, which is higher than other investigated combinations. The proposed system has an energy payback period of 1.26 years, an energy production factor of 0.78, a life cycle efficiency of 6.9 % and a cost of $0.031 per litre of water produced in the environmental economic analysis.