Design Analysis of Solar Water Distillation System by Using Flat Plate Collector

Abstract

AbstractAmong all the sources of renewable energy, solar energy has the potential. There are different applications where solar energy can be used in place of conventional energy resources. The present work analyzes the performance of solar distilling plants where a flat plate collector is used as a solar energy source. Solar distilling plants are mainly used where the need for small plants exists and it is available at less cost. It is widely used to convert saline water into pure water for drinking purposes without using conventional sources of energy. Radiation, convection, and conduction are the basic modes of heat transfer. The parameters, i.e. Volume of Water Required per day, temperature of hot water required, temperature of Inlet water, Wind speed, and Solar Radiation have been used for calculating the efficiency of flat plate collector, and parameters, i.e. Solar Radiation and different condensing cover material have been used for the Performance Analysis of Solar Still alone and Solar Still with FPC at a different time of a day. It has been found that coupling a solar flat plate collector with a still has increased the volumetric efficiency by 32.78% theoretically. This project aims to produce around 6–7 L of distilled water from 10 L of saline water during 8 h using solar energy by the use of a flat plate collector.KeywordsSolar stillFlat plate collectorEfficiency of collectorSolar energy