A Comparative Performance Study of Double Basin Single Slope Solar Still With and Without Using Nanoparticles

Abstract

In major region of the world, ample amount of fresh water is required for the drinking purpose as well as for the agricultural and industrial growth. Hence, it is necessary to investigate the alternate clean water extraction technologies to get the potable water from the saline water available at local area or inside the earth. One of the methods used to get the fresh water from the brackish water is solar distillation and the means used is called as a solar still. In the present work, single slope double basin solar still performance has been investigated with and without using Al2O3 nanoparticles at the location 20.61°N, 72.91°E. For the experimentation, two identical single slope double basin solar stills were fabricated with the same basin area. The yield of solar still, one without nanoparticles and the other with Al2O3 nanoparticles, has been measured for various weight concentrations of Al2O3 nanoparticles such as 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.10%, and 0.20%. The results show that the use of nanoparticles in solar still increases the distilled output by 17.6%, 12.3%, 7.2%, and 2.6% for weight concentrations of 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.10%, and 0.20%, respectively, in comparison to the solar still without nanoparticles.