an efficient solar desalination system for oil fields installation; increasing freshwater productivity by modifying the condensation surface

The increasing global demand for freshwater is a major challenge as the majority of water reserves are saline and improper to be utilized. in many oil reservoirs, including the offshore fields, limited access to fresh water complicates the situation. notably, high-intensity sunshine values in many oil-rich parts of iran, point to the solar water desalination systems that could meet the freshwater demands especially on the offshore platforms because of space restrictions. however, two main limitations of solar desalination systems are low productivity and large space requirements.this research aims to improve the efficiency of common-type solar desalination systems by modifying the condensing glass surface. utilizing an indoor desalination setup and simulating the outdoor temperature in the laboratory for 9 hours from 9:00 to 18:00, resulted in a wide range of freshwater production using different types of condensing glass surfaces.the results indicate that modifying the interior part of the glass condenser surface would critically increase freshwater production. according to the results, wettability modification and implanting specific types of grooved glass improved productivity. experimental results showed that for the grooved glass of 2mm depth and 5 cm distance, water production was enhanced by 47%. besides, by wettability alteration of the condensation surface increased the productivity by 25%. experimentally obtained data was utilized to simulate the system using fluent software. moreover, the effect of surrounding temperature on the efficiency of solar still was investigated.