Performance analysis of a solar still using an internal cooling coil system

Abstract

The paper presents the effect of using an internal cooling coil, underneath the glass cover of a basin solar still, on the desalination water generation. The data has been collected in between September and October, 2018, in the climactic conditions of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The experimental setup uses specific types of heat exchanger (used in automobile) as a cooling medium for cooling the water passing through the coil. A collector pipe is used for collecting the condensate formed on the internal cooling coil. A solar parabolic trough is also used to heat saline water by using ambient water pumped through a coil and installed at the bottom of the solar still. The results have been compared with different conventional solar still cases and external cooling technique, in which the outer inclined glass surface of the basin is cooled by a film of water at ambient temperature The modified solar still experimentation has improved the passive solar still efficiency by 39%.