Water Purification Process by Using One Side Vertical Solar Still

Solar desalination is a rapidly growing field of research. The coming global oil crisis implies that  alternatives  to  the  conventional  desalination plants  based  on  fossil  fuels  must  be  developed.  Solar desalination  can  be  either  direct,  with  collectors and  condensers  integrated  with  each  other,  or  indirect, with condensers externally connected to the condensers. Direct solar desalination requires large land areas and has a relatively low productivity compared to the indirect technologies. It is however competitive to indirect desalination plants in small-scale production due to its relatively low cost and simplicity. Indirect solar  desalination  usually  means  combining  conventional  desalination  techniques,  such  as  MSF,  ME  or RO, with solar collectors for heat generation. The main advantages of the investigation is providing for water purification process in the desert of K.A.S. The paper presents the performance evaluation of one-side vertical solar still tested under desert climatic conditions of K.A.S. Hourly and daily measurements of  still  productivity,  temperatures  of  water  film, glass  cover,  inlet  of  brackish  water  into  solar  still, ambient air temperature and solar radiation were recorded. The highest value of hourly still efficiency is 59 % recorded at 15:30.