Performance evaluation of single slope solar still augmented with sand-filled cotton bags

Abstract

• Augmentation of sandbags with CSS has been studied. • Enhancement in the distillate output and efficiency of a MSS is proven. • An improvement of 28.56 and 30.99% in cumulative distillate yield for 30 and 40 kg basin water. • MSS shows 31.31 and 28.96% higher internal efficiency for 40 and 30 kg basin water. In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the performance of conventional solar still (CSS) with the CSS augmented with 100 sand-filled cotton bags (called as modified solar still (MSS)). For the purpose, two identical single slope solar stills were fabricated. The bags were placed vertically at equidistance in the basin area for the enhancement of sensible energy storage capacity and water surface area (due to capillary action within the sandbags). Outdoor experiments were conducted in the month of January and February 2019, at Raghogarh, Guna (24° 39′N, 77° 19′E), India with 30 kg and 40 kg basin water. It has been observed that the cumulative distillate yield of MSS for 30 and 40 kg basin water were higher by 28.56 and 30.99% respectively. The overall efficiency of MSS is enhanced by 31.31 and 28.96% as compared with the CSS for 40 kg and 30 kg basin water respectively.