Abstract
Solar desalination systems are effective and sustainable applications that are utilized to obtain potable water from saline or contaminated water. In this research, three solar desalination systems, including a conventional system, a phase change material (PCM)-based thermal energy storage unit (TESU), and a natural dolomite powder integrated PCM-based TESU, were structured and experimentally investigated. The developed solar desalination systems were analyzed simultaneously and the findings were discussed in detail. According to the empirically obtained outcomes, utilizing PCM-based TESUs and dolomite-powder-embedded PCM-based TESUs increased daily cumulative productivity by 10.15% and 17.70%, respectively, in comparison to the conventional distiller. Employing dolomite powder increased the energy and exergy efficiencies of the conventional distiller from 15.91% to 18.28% and from 1.26% to 1.78%, respectively. Moreover, environmental metrics such as global warming potential and the sustainability index of the developed solar desalination systems were analyzed within the scope of this work.