Performance Improvement of Solar Stills via Experimental Investigation

Abstract: There is always a need to increase a distillate output of Solar still. If plates will be used inside solar still then distillate output of solar still are expected to increase. Hence, an experimental study is conducted to improve distillate output of basin solar stills by increasing the effective surface area with the help of different plates. For the purpose of experiment, three solar stills are developed by locally available materials. The first solar still is a conventional type, the second is made of Aluminium plate while the third one is from Galvenized Iron plate. Performance of solar stills having aluminium plate and Galvenized iron plate is tested and compared with conventional solar still under the same climate conditions of Mehsana, Gujarat. The three solar stills are tested at two situations:  still at same water depth (۴۰ mm) and stills having same quantity of brackish water (۳۰ L & ۴۰ L). Results indicate that, distillate output of solar still having aluminium plate is higher than conventional solar still and solar still having Galvenized iron plate. moreover, it is found that the average distillate output of water increases up to ۴۵ % and ۱۵ % of conventional solar still with respect to solar stills having aluminium plate and Galvenized iron plate respectively