Abstract
An experimental investigation on a solar still with lauric acid as phase change material (PCM) is carried out to examine the effect of both the mass of PCM and basin water on the daily distillate productivity and efficiency of the system under outdoor condition. Basic energy balance equations are written to predict the water and glass temperatures, daily distillate productivity and instantaneous efficiency of the single slope solar distillation system with PCM. It is found that the higher mass of PCM with lower mass of water in solar still basin significantly increases the daily productivity and the efficiency. Therefore, the distillate productivity at night and on day for solar still with PCM increased by 127% and 30-35% respectively than without PCM one. Shukla et al. approach of the use of inner glass cover temperature for productivity prediction which has also been investigated, and the prediction shows relatively better agreement with the experimental data than outer glass cover temperature.
Highlights
Portable water is indispensible for life and its scarcity is growing across the world, in dry regions, such as deserts and modern industrial areas
Solar energy being free and in abundance is being utilized for the purpose of desalination of brackish water to produce drinking water[1,2]
Extensive research work on parametric studies and methods to improve the productivity of passive solar stills has been reported in literature
Summary
Portable water is indispensible for life and its scarcity is growing across the world, in dry regions, such as deserts and modern industrial areas. The similar problem exists in remote areas and islands where fresh water supply through any transportation means is expensive. Solar energy being free and in abundance is being utilized for the purpose of desalination of brackish water to produce drinking water[1,2]. Extensive research work on parametric studies and methods to improve the productivity of passive solar stills has been reported in literature. Passive solar stills directly use solar energy to produce distillate water, and are self-operating, simple in construction and relatively free of maintenance[3] whereas, active stills comprise of energy concentrator to add more energy to the system for enhancing the distillate productivity. Single slope solar still with a condenser in the shaded region slopped increases the still efficiency by 45%[6], bla-
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