Performance Investigation of Single Sloped Solar Still Using Sand Beds

Abstract

Although more than 2-3rd of the earth is covered with water were less than 1% of it (freshwater) is in humans, plants & animals reach for their survival. The demand in fresh water for drinking, agriculture & industry largely exceeds the amount that fresh sources can meet. Access to safe/fresh water is a challenge in many communities in developing countries. Among the available purification  technologies solar powered distillation system has been the focus of great interest recently worldwide.  Since the productivity of the conventional solar still is low, it is essential to come up with sustainable technical solutions with a potential to produce safe drinking water at a low cost. Therefore, a novel and simple of solar still is constructed and the performance of the still is studied by using Aluminium basin with black paint and different weights of sand in the basin i.e, with 1 kg, 1.5 kg, and 2 kg of sand in the basin at different volumes of water to enhance the overall productivity of the distillation system from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. The maximum increase in daily productivity of sandy solar still was achieved at sand bed height of 1 kg sand and 2 lit of saline water above the sand beds level as compared with conventional solar still.

Keywords: solar energy, solar desalination, basin Solar Stills, sandy solar still, distillate productivity.