Performance analysis of solar energy based passive water purification system

Abstract

Since earth surface comprises of more than 70% of water but the large part of this water is not suitable for human consumption due to salinity. The amount of fresh water availability is even less than 1 %. Since a large part of available fresh water is locked in glaciers a very little amount of fresh water is within human reach. As we know human population is growing at an alarming rate so the demand of water consumption is growing. One promising solution to solve this water crisis is to desalinate the saline water. So to meet this demand a large scale water purification system can be installed in those areas where brackish or saline water is available. A solar still is a quite economical and promising technique to desalinate the saline water in far reaching places. It works on the principle of evaporation and condensation. This system does not require much maintenance and works on negligible running cost. Present work shows the comparative study of performances of passive solar still with and without nanofluid. As we know nanofluids have quite peculiar properties so when they use in passive solar stills in place of conventional fluids inside the basin liner the result shows remarkable enhancement in various performance parameters. As we know passive solar still does not use any external device or source of energy, hence it uses only the energy coming from sun for purification purpose. The use of nanofluid material amplifies the amount of pure water. So lots of research is being carried out to identify newer materials by which novel nanomaterials can be manufactured. This large amount of purified water can be used not only for drinking purpose but also for industry, laboratory, and irrigation purpose also.