{
  "abstract": "The practical deployment of passive solar distillers remains limited by insufficient evidence regarding their long-term operation with natural seawater and their performance at larger scales. This study combines a 53-day outdoor experimental campaign with a generalized transient thermal model to evaluate an inclined stepped solar distiller equipped with stair-step chicanes under the climatic conditions of Essaouira, Morocco. The experimental prototype operated at a nominal water depth of 5 mm, while the numerical configurations used architecture-specific depths of 5–7 mm. During the campaign, the natural-seawater temperature ranged from 17.45 to 25.61 °C, electrical conductivity from 52.0 to 76.6 mS/cm, and total dissolved solids from 25,405 to 31,000 ppm. Daily experimental freshwater productivity ranged from 1.354 to 2.153 L/m²/day, with a mean value of 1.729 L/m 2 /day and a sample standard deviation of 0.214 L/m²/day. This mean value was close to the previously reported productivity of 1.76 L/m 2 /day obtained using a synthetic sodium chloride solution. The distillate exhibited minimum apparent reductions of 98.7% in electrical conductivity, 98.8% in total dissolved solids, and 59.2% in turbidity, while no presumptive thermotolerant coliforms were detected in the analyzed 100 mL sample. The calibrated reference model predicted a specific productivity of 1.720 L/m²/day and was extended to compare five solar-thermal scale-up strategies without auxiliary heating and one photovoltaic-assisted enhancement. Under an identical passive solar collection area of 1.72 m², the predicted specific productivity ranged from 1.720 to 2.399 L/m 2 /day. The compartmented monoblock configuration achieved the highest production among the non-heated configurations of 4.127 L/day, whereas photovoltaic-assisted heating increased the common-condenser production from 3.240 to 3.524 L/day. The main novelty of this work lies in integrating long-duration natural-seawater experimental validation with a unified framework for comparing geometric enlargement, modular replication, thermal cascading, compartmentation, centralized condensation, and photovoltaic-assisted operation. The results demonstrate that hydraulic, thermal, and condensation organization is more influential than collection area alone in preserving productivity and operational stability during scale-up.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Laboratory of Engineering and Innovation of Advanced Systems, Faculty of Science and Technologies SETTAT, Hassan 1 University, Morocco; Research Foundation for Development and Innovation in Science and Engineering, Casablanca, Morocco; Correspondence to: 6 Street, El Massira District, Khenifra Postal Code 54000, Morocco.",
    "Laboratory of Engineering and Innovation of Advanced Systems, Faculty of Science and Technologies SETTAT, Hassan 1 University, Morocco; Research Foundation for Development and Innovation in Science and Engineering, Casablanca, Morocco",
    "Research Foundation for Development and Innovation in Science and Engineering, Casablanca, Morocco",
    "Research Foundation for Development and Innovation in Science and Engineering, Casablanca, Morocco; International Academy of Scientific Francophone (IASF), Rabat, Morocco"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Achraf El Allaoui"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Wafaa Dachry"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Hassan Gziri"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Loubna El Ansari"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Hicham Medromi"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch9att1ewpmr.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.clwat.2026.100334",
  "fulltext_url": "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950263226001328",
  "id": "2ch9att1ewpmr",
  "issns": [
    "2950-2632"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clwat.2026.100334",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "TD1-1066"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2105|Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223156428",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-30",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch9att1ewpmr.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:44:29Z",
      "native_id": "20402db50bab427eaa7a26b15398cd29",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clwat.2026.100334"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "lcc:TD1-1066",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Experimental natural-seawater validation and numerical scale-up of an inclined stepped solar distiller",
  "title_text": "Experimental natural-seawater validation and numerical scale-up of an inclined stepped solar distiller",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:44:29Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2ch9att1ewpmr",
  "venue": "Cleaner Water",
  "versions": []
}