Experimental optimization of a solar distillation unit

Abstract

Today global warming is a big issue. Ambient temperature have drastically increased, leading to severe droughts especially in those areas which receive less than average rainfall. Inadequate supply of quality drinking water especially in the rural areas have led to develop a distillation system with affordable cost and less maintenance in rural areas. Countries like India and South Africa are getting ample amount of solar energy almost throughout the year. Solar based water distillation unit-Solar still can be great solution to those kind of areas. Efficiency of the solar distillation can be improved by increasing evaporation rate which is a function of incident radiation. Further by increasing concentration of total dissolved salts in the water, base plate absorptivity and efficient energy absorbing material, by providing additional heat with solar water pre-heaters efficiency of solar still can be improved. Here experiments were carried out in order to find out optimum water bath depth and salt concentration in water in solar still for maximizing the yield. Experiments are also carried out by adding heat storage material and effect of salt concentration on yield.