Performance Evaluation of Single Slope Solar Still by Integrating with Solar Thermal Systems

The world is facing the state of being scarce of fresh or drinking water and it is the major problem and global challenge. Along with air and food, water is a basic necessity for human. Solar energy is the biggest source of energy available on earth. A solar distillation is one of the methods for purifying salt water to drinking water. In this method fresh water is obtained by exposing a small layer of salt water to solar radiation and the water vaporized from the basin is condensed on the bottom side of a taper transparent cover. It can be collected in receiving troughs at the end of the still. For this research, a solar still has been designed, fabricated and tested under the climate condition of Coimbatore (11.01680 N, 76.9550 E), India from December 2016 to March 2017. The still basin area was 1m2 and the glass cover of still is inclined at 13 degree based on the city latitude. Solar still is integrated with thermal system such as solar photovoltaic system and then with solar pond in order to preheat the feed water thereby increasing the productivity considerably. Experiments were carried out on the still using different parameters and tested for performance. The results showed that the daily production of the conventional solar still was 2 Lit/m2/day and integrated with photovoltaic system and solar pond was 3.1 Lit/m2/day and 2.54 Lit/m2/day respectively.