A new desalination system using a combination of heat pipe, evacuated tube and parabolic trough collector

•A new desalination uses a combination of heat pipe and parabolic trough collector.•A twin-glass evacuated tube is used to decrease the thermal losses from heat pipe.•Adding oil into the space between heat pipe and tube collector enhances the yield.•The yield and efficiency reach up to 0.933 kg/(m2 h) and 65.2%, respectively.

The solar collectors have been commonly used in desalination systems. Recent investigations show that the use of a linear parabolic trough collector in solar stills can improve the efficiency of a desalination system. In this work, a combination of a heat pipe and a twin-glass evacuated tube collector is utilized with a parabolic trough collector. Results show that the rate of production and efficiency can reach to 0.27 kg/(m2 h) and 22.1% when aluminum conducting foils are used in the space between the heat pipe and the twin-glass evacuated tube collector to transfer heat from the tube collector to the heat pipe. When oil is used as a medium for the transfer of heat, filling the space between heat pipe and twin-glass evacuated tube collector, the production and efficiency can increase to 0.933 kg/(m2 h) and 65.2%, respectively.