Comparative Study of Performance Measure of Modified Stepped Solar Still with Conventional Solar Still for Water Desalination Processes

Abstract

In the present investigation, we aimed to improve the solar still's efficiency by modifying the absorber plate's shape and thus intensifying the insulating plate's area. Solar stills are gaining one of the most cost-effective methods of producing distilled water, and many current investigators are working on it. Solar still can be used to purify saline water by employing the heat of solar irradiance to convert water into steam, which is then condensed on the reflective surface and accumulated in a container via a channel. In this work, a solar still have designed with an absorber plate folded in the shape of stairs and geometric dimples on the plate surface. Also, on the 10 steps of the absorber plate, several dimples with a radius of 3 mm were formed to increase their surface area. An inclined traditional type solar still (ICSS) was also built to compare the efficiency of the modified stepped solar still (MSSS) against that of the traditional solar still designs. During the analysis, it was found that the Productivity and efficiency of modified solar stills were significantly higher than those of conventional solar stills. When tested at a water depth of 1cm, the maximum Productivity per hour of the modified solar still was 0.30 kg per hour, while the conventional type solar still was 0.23 kg per hour. The performance level of the modified solar still was 18.80%, while the overall efficiency of the traditional ones still was 15.44%. The present results showed that the overall performance of the MSSS still was highly (3.34%) efficient than that of ICSS.