Study on stepped type basin in a solar still

Abstract

In this work a stepped solar still is used to enhance the productivity of the solar still. The concept of integrating the stepped solar still along with inclined flat plate collector is introduced in this research work. In this stepped type solar still, a conventional basin of area 1m2, was placed at the bottom. Another absorber plate, stepped type was fixed on the top of the conventional basin. It consists of subsequent trays and inclined flat plate collectors. This ensures an additional exposure area which augments the evaporation rate. Experiments were conducted with various depths in the conventional basin. A conventional still was fabricated and run parallel with the experimental set up for comparison. Sensible heat storage mediums such as rocks, pebbles were added to the top basin of stepped trays and bottom conventional basins to increase the temperature of water in the still. Wicks were placed on the inclined flat plate collector to augment the evaporation rate due to capillarity. A higher evaporation rate is obtained in the packing material with wicks and pebbles in tray combinations. Theoretical analysis was performed and it agrees with experimental values. Efficiency of the system was also compared with conventional solar still.