Impact of materials and economic analysis of single slope single basin passive solar still: A review

Abstract

Abstract For all the creatures on the earth, water is a crucial substance for life. Presence of water in all living organisms are about 70% by weight, so it is a most important concern for mankind to take care of scarcity and quality of freshwater. According to world bank, our world population growth rate decline continuously but still we have lots of people on earth which not even able to fulfil their drinking needs due to natural (climate change, geographical) and man-made reasons (lack of water management, ineffectively use), this forces them to use contaminated water, brackish water and water not even safe for indirect purposes. Solar still is one of the simplest and economical techniques for desalinating the saline water in the rural and remote areas. Present work approaches the current scenario for overall economic analysis, utilization and impact of various materials in the performance of solar distillation systems that reflect various parameters such as daily yield, annual yield, overall installation cost and yield cost rate under the Indian climatic conditions. Material properties based on the required performance of still in term of yield is important as well as the material availability reflects the direct and indirect economy that has been identified in the current work. The single slope solar still having material utilised in fabrication i.e. galvanized steel, upper glazing (Teflon), rubber material, black paint and insulation (sawdust) shows excellent performance. It has been shown that the combination of suitable solar stills or improved designs along with the materials pertaining desired properties that can favour the solar energy heat gain improves the overall performance of the system. Based on the current approach, a perspective conclusion has been made after the rich discussion with the help of distinctive information about the systems.