Experimental investigation of inclined solar still with and without sand as energy storage materials

Abstract

A Novel Inclined Solar still (ISS) assessed by sand as Sensible Heat Thermal Energy Storage Material (SHTESM) was fabricated with the view of improving yield. The performance of the ISS with and without SHTESM has been experimented in Chennai, India. The use of sand materials placed on the basin keeps the basin temperature high enough to yield higher distilled water during the evening time. The effect of sand as SHTESM on energy and exergy efficiencies was calculated. The calculation revealed that the energy and exergy efficiencies were maximum when ISS was assessed by sand materials. The diurnal yield was found to be 2.3 and 1.7 kg for the ISS with and without sand, respectively. The results showed that the yield of the ISS with sand was 35 % higher than the ISS without sand. The maximum energy and exergy efficiencies of the ISS without SHTESM are 30.4 % and 1.6 %, and for the ISS with SHTESM are 40.1 % and 2.2 %, respectively.