Design and performance evaluation of a novel solar distillation unit

To investigate the extent of effects of various design and operating parameters on the distillate produced by a solar still, a basin type of solar still with a novel absorber plate was designed and fabricated. The designed absorber plate was segmented into two steps along its breadth and incorporated with twenty-three equidistant baffle plates sized 90 cm × 4 cm × 0.2 cm, along its length. Such an arrangement successfully increased the surface area for evaporation, thereby augmenting the amount of yield. Experiments were conducted from 10a.m to 4p.m in four stages. In the 1st stage, experiments were conducted on the double-step single-basin solar still without any auxiliary. In the 2nd stage, the absorber plate was lined with jute wicks. In the 3rd stage, numbers of steps were increased to four and charcoal was added to the jute-lined absorber. In the final stage, a double glass cover was used to cover the jute-lined absorber plate of the then four-step still. The highest distillate yield augmented by 117.32% in the case of the fourth stage as compared to experimental results of the first stage. The maximum yield recorded was 3.94 per l/m2 day, at the solar radiation range of 859 W/m2-130 W/m2.