Comparative study of double basin and single basin solar stills

This paper presents a new approach to enhance the productivity of a solar still by introducing an additional basin in the double slope solar still. Two solar stills, single basin double slope and double basin double slope with the same basin area were fabricated and tested at Kovilpatti (9° 11′N, 77° 52′E), Tamil Nadu, India. The experiments were conducted with various depths of water, different wick materials, porous material and energy storing material. In double basin still, a mass of water in upper basin is constant for all experiments. For both stills, water production decreases with increase of water depth. The production rate is higher for both the stills, when mild steel pieces are used as storing material in the basin. For the same basin condition, double basin still production is 85% more than single basin still.

► Single and double basin solar stills with same basin area were fabricated.
► Stills were tested at summer for different depths.
► Double basin still is efficient.
► Both stills were tested with wick, porous and energy storing materials.
► Both stills were efficient with iron pieces at basin.