Experimental investigation on the effect of sensible heat energy storage in an inclined solar still with baffles

Abstract

This manuscript brings out the experimental analysis on the effect of different Sensible Heat Energy Storage Materials (SHESM) in an Inclined Solar Still (ISS) attached with baffles. Experimental study was carried out under constant flow rate of water in the baffled system with different SHESM. Experimental results show that ISS with SHESM improves the yield by 57.1 and 59.5% with the polyester sheet and rubber sheet respectively as compared to the inclined solar still without any material. The solar still with rubber mat, polyester mat and without any material were produced the maximum hourly yield of 0.48, 0.49 and 0.38 kg, respectively. While analyzing the yield during off shine period, the maximum yield of 0.2 kg/h is achievable and it is higher to about 75% as compared to solar still without any material and with the polyester mat. Due to higher heat energy absorption by the rubber mat, the energy and exergy were higher as compared to polyester mat. There is only an increase of about 1.9 and 1% for energy and exergy efficiency as compared to the polyester mat.