The present study developed a novel PCM-tubes geometry to be used inside a tubular solar still with parabolic solar concentrator. Paraffin wax is filled inside 12-aluminum tubes working as a PCM material. Copper rods are installed inside the paraffin wax to enhance thermal properties. Parabolic concentrator solar tracking system is used to intensify solar radiations on the tubular solar still. Experimental work was executed under the climatic conditions of Ha'il city (27.64 °N, 41.75°E) 965 m above sea level in Saudi Arabia. The 12‑aluminum tubes were black painted and placed inside the trough. Results show a great enhancement of the freshwater productivity and device performance with relatively low production cost. Using PCM-tubes enhances the productivity and efficiency of the developed device by 40.51% and 38.25% respectively. The yield, efficiency and cost per liter are 5.55 L/m²day, 44.1% and 0.00782 USD for device with PCM-tubes compared to 3.95 L/m²day, 31.9% and 0.0163 USD for device without PCM-tubes. The developed device was able to reduce the freshwater production cost by 21.8% achieving a very competitive cost compared to the available solar desalination techniques. Further development of the tubular solar still is required in the future research effort.

本研究开发了一种新颖的PCM管几何形状，可用于带有抛物线形太阳能集中器的管状太阳能蒸馏器中。石蜡填充在用作PCM材料的12个铝制管中。铜棒安装在石蜡内部以增强热性能。抛物线聚光器太阳能跟踪系统用于增强管状太阳能蒸馏器上的太阳辐射。在沙特阿拉伯海拔965 m的哈伊尔市（27.64°N，41.75°E）的气候条件下进行了实验工作。12铝管涂有黑色油漆，并置于槽内。结果表明，以相对较低的生产成本大大提高了淡水生产率和设备性能。使用PCM管将开发的设备的生产率和效率分别提高40.51％和38.25％。产量带PCM管的设备为²天，44.1％和0.00782美元，而无PCM管的设备为²天，31.9％和0.0163 USD。与可用的太阳能淡化技术相比，开发的设备能够将淡水生产成本降低21.8％，实现了极具竞争力的成本。在未来的研究工作中，仍需要进一步开发管状太阳能。