Direct generation of drinking water from ambient air using sunlight is of great interest for many populations. Here, a new desiccant mechanism using a highly hygroscopic silica gel was tested on the double-slope half-cylindrical basin solar still (DS-HCBSS) to extract the water content from the ambient air. As this mechanism is new to be applied into the solar still, an experimental and predictive study was conducted to investigate the thermal performance of the solar still under this modification. The modification was done in a double-slope half-cylindrical basin solar still, which has four longitudinal fins from inside to increase the surface area. The basin liner of the solar still and the fins were covered by a layer of silica gel with a thickness of 1.5 cm. A parabolic trough solar collector was used to raise the temperature inside the solar still during daytime solar illumination. The productivity of the DS-HCBSS with silica gel was enhanced by about 72% and 166% when longitudinal fins and longitudinal fins with gravels were used, respectively. Moreover, the efficiency of the DS-HCBSS with silica gel was increased by 15% and 35% when longitudinal fins and longitudinal fins with gravels were used, respectively. The best accumulated productivity (400 mL/m²) was recorded for the DS-HCBSS with silica gel, longitudinal fins, and gravels. Finally, a Neuro-fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model was employed to predict the process response (productivity) of the investigated systems under different process input factors (ambient temperature and solar irradiance). The predictive model obtained a good agreement with the experimental results. The experimental results revealed that the double-slope half-cylindrical basin solar still with the modification provides a new concept for Air Water Harvesting (AWH) and atmospheric water generation.

利用阳光从周围空气中直接产生饮用水对许多人群来说非常重要。在这里，在双斜面半圆柱形盆式太阳能蒸馏器（DS-HCBSS）上测试了使用高度吸湿硅胶的新型干燥剂机理，以从环境空气中提取水分。由于这种机制是新的应用于太阳能蒸馏器的，因此进行了实验和预测研究，以研究在这种修改下的太阳能蒸馏器的热性能。修改是在一个双坡度半圆柱形盆式太阳能蒸馏器中完成的，该蒸馏器从内部有四个纵向鳍片，以增加表面积。太阳蒸馏器和翅片的​​盆衬被厚度为1.5厘米的硅胶层覆盖。抛物槽式太阳能集热器用于在日光照射下提高太阳能蒸馏器内部的温度。当使用纵向鳍片和带有砾石的纵向鳍片时，带硅胶的DS-HCBSS的生产率分别提高了约72％和166％。此外，当使用纵向鳍片和带有砾石的纵向鳍片时，带硅胶的DS-HCBSS的效率分别提高了15％和35％。最佳的累积生产率（400 mL / m 当使用纵向鳍片和带有砾石的纵向鳍片时，带硅胶的DS-HCBSS的效率分别提高了15％和35％。最佳的累积生产率（400 mL / m 当使用纵向鳍片和带有砾石的纵向鳍片时，带硅胶的DS-HCBSS的效率分别提高了15％和35％。最佳的累积生产率（400 mL / m²）用硅胶，纵向鳍和砾石记录了DS-HCBSS。最后，采用神经模糊推理系统（ANFIS）模型来预测在不同过程输入因子（环境温度和太阳辐射）下所研究系统的过程响应（生产率）。预测模型与实验结果吻合良好。实验结果表明，经过改进的双坡度半圆柱形盆地太阳能蒸馏器为空气集水（AWH）和大气水的产生提供了新的概念。