Use of Portland cement as heat storage medium in solar desalination M. Hassen Sellami a, ⁎, R. Touahir a , S. Guemari a , K. Loudiyi b a Process Engineering Laboratory, Ouargla University, 30000, Algeria b Renewable Energies Laboratory (REL), Al Akhawayne University, Ifrane, Morocco HIGHLIGHTS • Topic solving the problem of water shortage for small communities in re- mote areas. • Using cheap and available materials with renewable and clean energy. • Possibility of a longer distillation time (nocturnal distillation). • Producing distilled water with low cost price compared with other methods. • Encouraging and satisfying results. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 24 December 2015 Received in revised form 12 July 2016 Accepted 19 July 2016 Available online xxxx In aim to increase the yield of conventional solar still, Portland cement has been used in two forms: sprayed pow- der and adhesive layer in order to study firstly their thermal behavior on the output, secondly to see the effect of the heat storage medium amount on the yield and thirdly to see the photocatalyst behavior of the cement on the quality of distillate; the experiments carried out in Ouargla University revealed that: – For the same amount, powder cement is more beneficial in quantity term but in term of quality and according to distilled water analysis, the cement layer is better. This improvement in quantity and quality of distillate is due from side to the heat storage medium and to the other side to photocatalyst behavior of Portland cement. – Best result is obtained by spraying 150 g i.e. 0.906 (kg of powder cement/m 2 of absorber area) which led to an improvement of the output by of 51.14%. © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Solar desalination Heat storage medium Portland cement Photocatalysts Desalination 398 (2016) 180–188 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: sellami2000dz@gmail.com (M.H. Sellami). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2016.07.027 0011-9164/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Desalination journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal