Numerical study of a double-slope solar still coupled with capillary film condenser in south Algeria

The effect of joining a condensation cell to a single-basin double slope solar still was investigated numerically. Direct solar radiation heated the saline water then evaporated. A fraction of the resulting vapor is condensed on the inner glass cover plate and the rest on the outer metal plate. Solar radiation, ambient temperature and the temperatures at different system components were monitored. The performance of the system was evaluated and compared to that of a conventional solar still under the same meteorological conditions. The proposed prototype functioned perfectly and its daily yield reached 7.15 kg m−2 d−1. Results show that the productivity of the present system was about 60% higher than that of the conventional and capillary film types. The contributions of the glass cover, metal plate and condenser plate are 43%, 18% and 39% of the total distillate yield respectively. It was noticed that the productivity of the capillary film solar still was sensitive to the mass flow of the feeding water. It was also found that the absorptivity coefficient and the diffusion gap have significant effect on distillate production of the system.