Sustainable Agriculture Irrigation System Using a Novel Solar Still Design With a Compound Parabolic Concentrator Reflector

Abstract

In this paper, a new design of a solar still powered by a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC-SS) for agriculture irrigation is proposed and investigated. The concentrating performance of its concentrator is simulated which is proved that it has a wide focusing angle and the receiving rate is still more than 80% when the incident angle of light reaches to 35 deg. Theoretical calculations show that the daily water production rate per unit area of the solar still can reach 4 kg/m2, which can meet the crop growth needs of 2 m2. The water production performance and operating temperature of the CPC-SS were tested experimentally under actual weather conditions, and the variation curves of system internal working temperature and water production performance with time were given. As the results, in the sunny weather conditions in Beijing in the autumn, the daily water production of the tubular solar still is about 2.03 kg/m2, and the maximum operating temperature in the tube reaches 60 °C. The actual solar energy utilization efficiency can be as high as 22%.