Partitioning of solar still for performance recovery: Experimental and numerical investigations with cost analysis

In this paper, the effects of partitioning in solar still on performance recovery are investigated experimentally and numerically. Two single slope solar stills containing conventional and modified by installing a partition are fabricated and tested, simultaneously. Two stills have a same basin area. All experiments were performed in Semnan with geographical coordinates of 35° 33′ N, 53° 23′ E, Iran. Hourly temperature, productivity, and efficiency for the modified and conventional stills are obtained and compared. Moreover, a numerical simulation based on SIMPLE algorithm is utilized and different contours are drawn to more discuss about the physics of this problem. Finally, a cost analysis is performed to investigate the modified still, economically. It is found that the partitioned still works at much higher temperature difference between water and the condensing area especially for afternoon hours. Moreover, the productivity increases by installing the partition in the still. These enhancements are about 4.81%, 4.82%, 5.62%, and 8.16% for first, second, third, and fourth days of the experiment, respectively. Finally, the cost analysis studies reveal that the costs per liter of the fresh water production for the conventional and modified stills are 0.0096 and 0.0104 $/L/m2, respectively.