Abstract
The latent heat of condensation is lost to the atmosphere; hence it is not utilized to increase distillate output of single basin solar stills. This difficulty was overcome by attaching an additional basin to the main basin. The performance of the double basin solar still was also increased by attaching vacuum tubes to the lower basin; hence the lower basin possessed a higher temperature throughout the day. The latent heat of condensation of the bottom basin was also utilized to increase distillate. But the distillate output of the top basin was even lower compared with that of the bottom basin. This paper proposed a novel approach to increase the distillate output of the double basin solar still attached with vacuum tubes by introducing different sensible energy storage materials like pebbles, black granite gravel and calcium stones to increase the basin area. Experiments were conducted in climate conditions of Mehsana (23.6000° N, 72.4000° E) Gujarat from April to September 2013 with a constant water depth of 2 cm in the top basin with and without the use of basin materials. The results showed that the distillate output of basin material with calcium stones is greater (74%) compared with that of black granite gravel and pebbles. The integration of vacuum tubes with solar still greatly increases the distillate output of the solar still by providing hot water at the lower basin.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cooper P I. The maximum efficiency of single-effect solar stills. Solar Energy, 1979, 15(3): 215–217
Tripathi R, Tiwari G N. Effect of water depth on internal heat and mass transfer for active solar distillation. Desalination, 2005, 173(2): 187–200
Tripathi R, Tiwari G N. Thermal modeling of passive and active solar stills for different depths of water by using the concept of solar fraction. Solar Energy, 2006, 80(8): 956–967
Phadatare M K, Verma S K. Influence of water depth on internal heat and mass transfer in a plastic solar still. Desalination, 2007, 217(1–3): 267–275
Dutt D K, Kumar A, Anand J D, Tiwari G N. Performance of a double basin solar still in the presence of dye. Applied Energy, 1989, 32(3): 207–223
Tiwari G N, Gupta S P, Lawrence S A. Transient analysis of solar still in the presence of dye. Energy Conversion and Management, 1989, 29(1): 59–62
Rajvanshi A K. Effect of various dyes on solar distillation. Solar Energy, 1981, 27(1): 51–65
Akash B A, Mohsen M S, Osta O, Elayan Y. Experimental evolution of a single basin solar still is using different absorbing materials. Renewable Energy, 1998, 14(1–4): 307–310
Madani A A, Zaki G M. Yield of solar stills with porous basins. Applied Energy, 1995, 52(2–3): 273–281
Naim M M, Abd E L, Kawi M A. Non-conventional solar stills part I, non-conventional solar stills with charcoal particles as absorber medium. Desalination, 2002, 153(1–3): 55–64
Nafey A S, Abdelkader M, Abdelmotalip A, Mabrouk A A. Solar still productivity enhancement. Energy Conversion and Management, 2001, 42(11): 1401–1408
Abdel-Rehim Z S, Lasheen A. Improving the performance of solar desalination systems. Renewable Energy, 2005, 30(13): 1955–1971
Kalidasa Murugavel K, Chockalingam Kn K S K, Sridhar K. An experimental study on single basin double slope simulation solar still with thin layer of water in the basin. Desalination, 2008, 220(1–3): 687–693
Arjunan T V, Aybar H S, Sakthivel M, Nedunchezhian N. Effect of blue metal stones on the performance of a conventional solar still. Journal of Convergence in Engineering, Technology and Science, 2009, 1(1): 17–22
Kalidasa Murugavel K, Sivakumar S, Riaz Ashamed J, Chocklingam Kn K S K, Sridhar K. Single basin double slope solar still with minimum basin depth and energy storing materials. Applied Energy, 2010, 87(2): 514–523
Kalidasa Murugavel K, Srithar K. Performance study on basin type double slope solar still with different wick materials and minimum mass of water. Renewable Energy, 2011, 36(2): 612–620
Abdallah S, Abu-Khader M M, Badran O. Effect of various absorbing materials on the thermal performance of solar stills. Desalination, 2009, 242(1–3): 128–137
Rajaseenivasan T, Elango T, Kalidasa Murugavel K. Comparative study of double basin and single basin solar stills. Desalination, 2013, 309(1): 27–31
Tiwari G N. Solar Energy, Fundamentals, Design, Modeling and Applications. New Delhi: Narosa Publishing House, 2004
Morrison G L, Buddhihrajo I, Behnia M. Water in glass evacuated tube solar water heaters. Solar Energy, 2004, 76(1–3): 178–189
Dev R, Tiwari G N. Annual performance of evacuated tubular collector integrated solar still. Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012, 41(1–3): 204–223
Sampathkumar K, Mayilsamy K, Shanmugam S, Senthilkumar P. An experimental study on single basin solar still augmented with evacuated tubes. Thermal Science, 2012, 16(2): 573–581
Xiong J Y, Xie G, Zheng H F. Experimental and numerical study on a new multi-effect solar still with enhanced condensation surface. Energy Conversion and Management, 2013, 73: 176–185
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Panchal, H.N., Shah, P.K. Enhancement of distillate output of double basin solar still with vacuum tubes. Front. Energy 8, 101–109 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-014-0299-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-014-0299-5