Innovative continuous heating-enhance solar still farm- A case study for irrigation in a pistachio orchard

Water scarcity is a global concern that has become one of the main problems for agricultural activities, especially in countries with arid and semi-arid climates like Iran. Sirjan city, a sweltering and arid city in Iran, is one of the locations where its economy mainly relies on pistachio orchards and other agricultural activities, which are highly affected by poor water quality and high TDS of wells. This city's climate, high solar irradiation, sunny sky, and the high requirement for distilled water for irrigation make utilizing solar power and solar-still desalination systems a reasonable choice. However, the low water production rate of conventional solar still systems prevents the use of this technology in field-scale projects and real agricultural activities. Therefore, we mixed solar still and solar power, to enhance the water production rate and provide water with proper TDS for a pistachio orchard in Sirjan City. In comparison to conventional solar still, the proposed continuous heating-enhanced solar still benefits from several improvements, including passing water through the grooved glass that leads to lowering the glass temperature, increasing water basing temperature by a heating element, polyurethane isolation of basin and capability of working during day and night. The mentioned improvements will lead to an increase in daily water production by 21% from 5.5 to 6.6, 24% from 5.5 to 6.8, 31% from 5.5 to 7.2, and 44% from 5.5 to 7.92 respectively. Therefore, utilizing all the mentioned approaches leads to a 120% increase in daily water production from 5.5 to 12.17 L and in comparison, to the conventional mechanisms, significantly reduces the required area for the system. The results showed that the proposed method is highly effective and could be used in real agricultural activities in arid and semi-arid climates.