Passive Solar Stills Research Articles

Experimental and computational modeling analysis of double slope solar still with a trapezoidal channel for preheating

In specific locations in India, water scarcity is an important issue, therefore several efforts are made to produce treated water so that rural and urban areas have access to safe and sustainable drinking water. The solar still method is the most affordable water purification option available in these hot areas. This research aims to enhance the performance of passive double-slope solar stills by analyzing the effects of preheated water on evaporation and yield rates. A new method was adopted to maintain the lowest water depth in the basin of a solar still by using a channel attachment to move the feed water. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of a trapezoidal channel attachment within the solar still, a first-time innovation, on its efficiency and yield rate. Computational fluid dynamics and experimental data collected on February 10, 2024, in Kattankulathur was analyzed to assess temperature variations and yield rates. A three-dimensional full-scale simulation was carried out using Ansys Fluent with a two-phase (evaporation and condensation) model, where the flow in the channels of the rate varied from 0.87 × 10-4 to 5.21 × 10-4 Ls−1 and the highest yield is achieved at flow rate of 1.74 × 10-4 Ls−1. The accuracy of the simulation technique was evaluated by comparing it to experimental data, and found a good match. The results demonstrated that solar still with trapezoidal channels significantly increased the overall yield rate. Optimal performance was achieved under specific environmental conditions, with a cumulative yield of 2.45 Lm−2 at a basin water depth of 10 mm, marking a 37.64 % increase over the conventional solar still. Economic analysis indicated a reduction in the payback period to 299 days, affirming the system’s cost-effectiveness. The trapezoidal channel design is limited to a cross-section of 10 mm2, and positioned at a 17° angle on the middle sidewall to minimize the shadow formation on the basin of still and maintain high yield and evaporation–condensation rates. The novelty of this work is to integrate trapezoidal channels on the double slope solar still and to optimize its design and flow rate to maximize the overall production.

Multifunctional applications of passive solar stills in water treatment: an eco-friendly approach

Conventional raw water treatment methods are expensive and require a sufficient energy supply for their operations. In remote and rural areas, these conventional methods are feasible due to a poor economy and interrupted power supply. This study provides a sustainable approach to treating raw water using solar energy and phase change material (PCM). Passive solar stills (SS) are sufficient to treat water in the presence of solar radiation, and we can increase the yield and quality of distillate water by using calcium chloride hexahydrate as a phase change material. Moreover, PCM-based solar still is also advanced by adding activated charcoal (AC) for the removal of fluoride from the raw water. The efficiency of the solar still was assessed for the eight parameters: yield (Y), fluoride (F), total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH), chloride (Cl). Through the number of water quality assessments, it was found that SS with PCM can reduce (%) the TDS (85%–100%), EC (90%–100%), pH (0%–15%), TH (90%–95%), TA (75%–90%), and Cl (80%–100%) and can increase the yield by 10%–15%. SS with PCM and AC also showed good removal of F from raw water. In addition to that, a statistical analysis was also carried out to understand the effect of different climatic factors on the performance of solar stills.

Water desalination using PV panels based on boiling and evaporation

The annual share of water in Egypt has decreased to approximately 500 m3 per capita, while the annual water scarcity level is 1000 m3 per capita, which indicates that Egyptians are at a high risk of living. A domestic desalination unit based on solar energy was designed, built, and tested to solve this problem in remote areas that do not have access to fresh water or electricity but have access to salty water. The desalination unit has a new design that depends on boiling salty water using photovoltaic solar cells and then condensing the water vapor through a heat exchanger to obtain freshwater. This new design has not been implemented before and can compete with the solar stills used for domestic applications. The output of the developed unit was compared to those of passive and active solar stills that have been developed and built. The new desalination design produced almost the same amount of daily fresh water, 4 Liter/day, compared to the other solar stills (2–4.75 Liter/day), but the cost per unit volume of the new design, 31 $/m3, is less by 30% compared to the best performing solar still, 44.55 $/m3, which produces only 2 Liter/day. The price of the distilled water produced by the new design was 75% lower than the market price at the time of conducting the experiments. Converting a Solar still from a passive system, that is, operating only during sunlight, to an active system operating day and night improves the water productivity rate. However, this is not feasible because of the added accessories that increase the initial cost, consequently increasing the cost of desalination.

A comparative numerical study of three similar passive solar stills: Single slope, V-type, and greenhouse

In this paper, three solar stills with similar geometries are numerically investigated for analysis and comparison. The solar stills include single slope, V-type, and greenhouse stills. Steady-state laminar flow numerical simulations with different water surface temperatures and cover glass temperatures are performed. Simulation results were confirmed with data from analytical and experimental models to ensure reliability. The results showed that the V-type still has a higher number of recirculation zones than that of single slope and greenhouse stills. These vortex regions are small, but the velocity magnitude is no less than the other two stills. This difference makes the freshwater yield and convection heat transfer coefficient of V-type still the largest. Daily freshwater productions of single slope, V-type, and greenhouse stills are 0.592, 0.673, and 0.623 kg/m2, respectively. Productivity at 15 PM is 2.5 times higher than the hours from noon to 14 PM. The natural convection heat transfer coefficient seemed to be unvaried with the temperature difference but changed strongly with the still geometry.

Investigation of Performance of Stone Fin Solar Still Absorber by Water Depth Variations.

Passive Solar is still suitable for Indonesia's islands and coastal areas. Various attempts have been made to increase the performance of passive solar stills, including using porous materials, fins absorber models, and making water in the form of a thin layer. This study aims to increase the distillate output and Efficiency of Solar still. This study's method compares stone fin solar stills absorbers using water depth variations of 1 cm, 2 cm, and 3 cm with conventional solar stills at a water depth of 1 cm. The study resulted in the distillate output of stone fin solar still absorber of 3.35 (liter/m2.day) higher than the conventional solar stills 2.44 (liter/m2.day) at a depth of 1 cm. The highest Efficiency of solar stills using the stone fin solar still absorbers is 58.45% higher than conventional solar stills, 43.60% at a depth of 1 cm. Solar stills with lower water depths resulted in higher distillate output and Efficiency. Solar stills using stone fin absorbent plates produce higher productivity and Efficiency than conventional ones

Exergy, energy, and economic analyses of pyramid solar still integrated with solar water heater

ABSTRACT One of the top priorities in the development of solar stills is productivity enhancement. The present study experimentally investigates both passive and active pyramid solar stills. In active mode, the pyramid solar still is integrated with a solar water heater. The tests were carried out with conventional pyramid solar still (CPSS) and active pyramid solar still (APSS) at 1, 2, and 3 cm of water depth, respectively. The experimentation has been carried out in Nagpur (Longitude 21.124042, Latitude 79.002211) from April – May 2022. The finding shows that the pyramid solar still coupled with a solar water heater at a water depth of 1 cm produces the highest productivity of 7.99 L/m2.The hourly thermal efficiency is to be inversely related to the absorber area and the exergy efficiency is inversely related to the absorber area and directly proportional to the still output. Hence exergy and thermal efficiency of CPSS at 1 cm water depth is enhanced by (107.59%) and (49.36%) as compared to APSS, respectively. The cost per liter of fresh water obtained from conventional pyramid solar still and active pyramid solar still are 0.0139$/L and 0.00751$/L respectively. Based on the study, lower basin water depths and secondary heating enhance the solar still’s productivity.

Optimization of the geometry of double-chamber basin-type passive solar stills to maximize yield

AbstractDeveloping countries require simple low-technology methods to desalinate drinking water. Passive solar stills are an example of a simple low-technology innovation that can desalinate saline water for small populations. Compared to single-chamber solar stills, double-chamber solar stills have the potential of increasing the yield of solar stills due to an increased condensation surface area. An experiment was carried out to determine the optimal angle of double-chamber solar stills. The set-up comprised double-chamber solar stills with angles of 10°, 20°, 30° and 40°, with a control set-up of a 20° single-chamber solar still. The experiment was conducted in January 2022 at Juja in Kiambu County, Kenya. The double-chamber solar stills comprised an evaporation chamber and a condensation chamber. The dimensions of the chambers were 0.5 m × 0.5 m with a height of 0.25 m. The main assumptions were that there existed steady-state conditions and that the solar still was leakproof. The research found that the 40° double-chamber solar still had the highest yield of 3.756 l/m2/day and the 10° double-chamber solar still had the least yield of 1.644 l/m2/day. Comparing the 20° double-chamber still and the 20° single-chamber still (control), the double-chamber solar still had a higher external efficiency.

Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Single-Slope Passive Solar Still with Phase-Change Materials

Many attempts are made worldwide to create cheap, efficient, and eco-friendly water desalination systems. Passive solar stills (SS) are considered to be such. This paper presents the results of the experimental and theoretical investigation of the effects of using phase-change materials (PCM) on the performance of SS. The experiments were conducted for two paraffin waxes, as PCM and 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0 kg of PCM were used. The results of the experimental studies were used to validate a mathematical model, which was based on the energy balance ordinary differential equations. The equations were solved numerically since the approximate solutions obtained numerically are sufficient and relatively simple as compared to the exact analytical solutions. A theoretical analysis was then carried out and a novel and detailed dependence on the water evaporation rate as a function of water temperature and the difference between water and cover temperature was determined. It was also found that the productivity of the SS with PCM strongly depends on the operating conditions. For uniform initial temperatures of the SS, its productivity decreases with an increasing PCM-to-water mass ratio, and the maximum decrease is 10.8%. If the SS is not thermally insulated, the PCM can take the role of a thermal insulator and increase productivity by 1.1%, but there is an optimal PCM-to-water mass ratio. The greatest increase in productivity, by up to 47.1%, can be obtained when the PCM is heated outside the SS and inserted into the SS when the water temperature starts to decrease. In this case, the productivity increases with the increasing PCM-to-water mass ratio. These outcomes fill a knowledge gap caused by a lack of justification for why in some cases, the application of PCM fails to improve the productivity of SS.

An experimental investigation on performance enhancement of twin wedge solar still with concrete basin for increased fresh water production

ABSTRACT Passive solar stills are simple and economic water treatment systems which apply natural hydrological cycle to transform brackish and saline water into freshwater useful to the society. This paper reports the performance of aTwin Wedge Solar Still with concrete basin (TWSS(CONC)) designed suitably for implementation in Green Building Applications. Through an experimental investigation, the performance of this TWSSsystem is compared with that of Conventional Solar Still (CSS) and the effect of including an Aluminum liner to the concrete basin of TWSS(TWSS(CONC+Al)) is also studied. The experimentation was carried out at South Indian location of Kattankulathur (Longitude/Latitude: 88.6241° E/24.3636° N), on a summer day. The distillate yields of the CSS, TWSS(CONC)and TWSS(CONC+Al) were obtained as 1.90 l/m2, 2.77 l/m2 and 4.17 l/m2, correspondingly. The thermal efficiency of TWSS(CONC+Al), was 1.8 times more than TWSS(CONC) and 2.6 times more than the CSS. The TWSS(CONC+Al), delivered freshwater at the cost of $ 0.027 per liter. The Twin Wedge shaped glass lid allowed more solar radiation to be received by the basin as well as increased the condensation surface. The aluminum lining inTWSS(CONC+Al) aided proper distribution of heat in the basin and increased the evaporation rate. The thermal energy which was stockpiled in the concrete basin enabled to maintain a significant difference between thebasin water and condensing surface temperatures during the hours when the solar radiation intensity was low. The payback time period for TWSS(CONC+Al)was estimated to be only 9 months.

Development and validation of a transient model for a passive solar still considering the aspect ratio of the evaporation chamber

This article presents a transient model of a single slope single basin passive solar still. The model considers the aspect ratio of the evaporation chamber, the thermal inertia of components and the bulk water, and the salinity level. An experimental rig was designed, fabricated, and tested for various aspect ratios of the evaporation chamber. The transmissivity of the glass cover was measured during experiments and applied as an input to the model. It was found that the transmissivity is reduced by up to 21% over the day. The developed model was validated with the experimental data. The simulations and experiments were conducted in Melbourne, Australia during a summer. The model predicted outputs agree with the measured data. The predicted performance of the solar still is about 5% more than that of measured. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the climate parameters. The simulated and measured water yield and the thermal efficiency of the solar still under a range of water depths and chamber aspect ratios are reported. A solar still with a larger aspect ratio of the evaporation chamber (shorter specific height) generates more potable water. However, the effect of lower depth of bulk water on the water yield of the system is more significant. The fabricated passive solar still generated 2.52 kg m−2 d−1 of potable water with a thermal efficiency of 19.2% for a water depth of 0.01 m and the salinity of 3% by wt. Based on the results of the simulations, the study provides recommendations to achieve maximum performance for conventional passive solar stills.

Techno-Economic and Enviroeconomic Analysis Review of Distinct Passive and Active Solar Distillation Still

Water scarcity is an issue that stems from the overconsumption and misuse of fresh water supplies, which leads to shortages and decreased quality of life. It most affects developing countries that do not have the infrastructure in place to mitigate these factors. Solar still become most suitable method for water purification in these types of places due to its cheapness and easily made from locally available materials. Current paper concentrate on a detailed techno-economic and enviroeconomic analysis of distinct configurations of active and passive solar distillation stills. Distilled water production, cost per litres, environmental cost comparison has been done between different types of passive and active solar still. Active solar still has a higher system cost compared to passive solar due to the addition of thermal energy by different components and mechanisms. Based on the results, minimum cost per litre is obtained for passive conventional solar still with the spherical ball as heat storage material and in case of active solar still, with PV module, reflectors, air-cooling technique are 0.0136 $/l and 0.0092 $/l, respectively. On the basis of energy, the highest environmental cost was found for AMSSFS air-cooled with evacuated mode (1456.38 $), while the lowest was found for active solar stills with N - Flat Plate Collectors (44 $).

Numerical investigation of wind velocity effects on evaporation rate of passive single-slope solar stills in Khuzestan province in Iran

Khuzestan Province is located in Iran and has average annual evaporation of over 2000 ml. It also encounters water scarcity and water salinity issues. To make proper use of the high evaporation rate in Khuzestan and help overcome the water scarcity issue, this study simulates the effects of wind velocity on the performance of passive single-slope solar stills, identifying the optimal regions for the deployment of solar stills. The wind velocities of 2.5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, and 20 m/s were incorporated. To simulate the two-dimensional steady laminar flow within the solar still, the humid air model was employed. Furthermore, the turbulence k-ε model was utilized to simulate the external flow of the solar still. The accuracy of the numerical technique was evaluated by comparing the average Nusselt number results on the water surface to different models and by comparing the production rate results to experimental data. It was observed that the numerical approach was properly accurate. The results indicate that a rise in the wind velocity decreases the freshwater production rate, with the maximum production rate reduction was occurred at a wind velocity of 15 m/s. Ramhormoz, Dehdez, and Izeh were found to be optimal regions for deploying solar stills, based on the wind velocity.

Advanced design techniques in passive and active tubular solar stills: a review.

Clean water production using green energy supply plays a significant role in the globe's health and economic development. In recent years, so much importance is given on developing the advanced designs of solar stills to improvise the productivity of conventional solar stills. Tubular solar stills (TSSs) are one of the emerging areas to improve clean water productivity. This paper's main aim is detailed review of passive and active tubular solar still design specifications and highlighting the specific merit of each design. The common tube materials in passive and active TSS are glass, stainless Steel 304, vinyl chloride, flexi glass, poly carbonate, and poly ethylene with variation in thickness from 0.07 to 2.5mm. Diameter of the tube varied from 50 to 280mm in both the cases. Also, the monetary analysis of TSS is discussed, and the average price of water for passive and active tubular solar still is $0.022 and $0.027 per liter of water. Future perspectives also included in the conclusion section for the possible design and material improvements one can do to enhance the performance of the TSS for the benefit of researches. The excellent cover material for TSS is polythene film when compared to the vinyl chloride sheet. TSS with PCM, wick materials, and corrugated absorber enhance productivity during night time. Multi-effect tubular stills performed 28.70% better in comparison to single-effect stills, and TSSs with horizontal axis are 19.12% more productive than vertical axis tubular stills.

Clean Water Production Enhancement through the Integration of Small-Scale Solar Stills with Solar Dish Concentrators (SDCs)—A Review

The conventional solar still, as a water treatment technique, has been reported to produce water at a low working temperature where various thermal resistance pathogens could survive in their distillate. In this work, the reviews of previous research on the quality of water produced by passive solar stills and their productivities in initial basin water temperatures were first presented and discussed. The next review discussed some recent studies on the performances of small-scale solar stills integrated with SDCs (with and without sun-tracking systems (STSs)) to observe the operating temperatures from early hours until the end of operations, daily water yield, and cost per liter. Based on these findings, it was revealed that SDCs with STSs indicated an instant increase in the absorber water temperature up to 70 °C at the starting point of the experiments in which this temperature range marked the unbearable survival of the pathogenic organisms and viruses, particularly the recent SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, disinfection was also observed when the absorbers’ water temperature reached beyond the boiling point until the end of operations. This indicates the effectiveness of SDCs with STS in reflecting a large amount of sun’s rays and heat to the small-scale absorbers and providing higher operating absorbers temperatures compared to immobile SDCs. Daily productivities and costs per liter of the SDCs with STSs were found to be higher and lower than those of the other previous passive and active solar stills. Therefore, it is recommended that small-scale absorbers integrated with SDCs and STS can be used as a cost-effective and reliable method to produce hygienic pathogen-free water for the communities in remote and rural areas which encounter water scarcity and abundant annual bright sunshine hours.

Performance research and comparison of integrated passive solar-concentrated stills buried in soil: With/without heat recovery

Although interfacial evaporation based on new materials and configurations has recently attracted great interest, there is still considerable potential for breakthroughs in low-cost, sustainable conventional solar stills. Conventional solar stills have always suffered from low evaporation temperatures, condensation droplets interference to the solar light transmission, and the inconvenience of heat recovery design. This paper addresses these shortcomings by designing an integrated passive solar-concentrated still with an embedded light concentration form, a suitable light transmission and evaporation–condensation structure, and a well-matched heat recovery configuration. The proposed solar still helps achieve better energy transfer and conversion and increase the yield and efficiency. This paper analyses and discusses the solar radiation transmission characteristics inside the proposed solar stills and conducts an experimental study of the solar-thermal-water conversion performance. The results show a maximum solar radiation transmission efficiency of 73.5%, identifying the key factors governing the solar radiation transmission efficiency. The discussion has pointed in the direction where the overall performance of the device can be further improved by refining the surface optical properties. The outdoor experiments show that the total water yield of the solar still with heat recovery could reach 3.67 kg/m2 per unit solar concentrator aperture area. The water production and practical evaporation efficiencies are about 37% and 57.8%, respectively, showing the superior performance of the solar-concentrated device with such an integrated structure. The experimental result comparison indicates that the solar still shows a 16.8% yield increment with the assistance of the heat recovery unit, illustrating the effectiveness of heat recovery configurations at sidewalls. This paper provides meaningful future directions for the development of passive solar stills.

Design and Investigation of an Effective Solar Still Applicable to Remote Islands

Most remote islands are characterized by small populations, many of whom live under the poverty line, poor geographical accessibility and lack of electricity. As such, the solar still, which has a low capital cost, easy operation and less need of maintenance, is recommended to be used in remote islands possessing rich solar irradiance. Against this backdrop, the present study aimed to design and fabricate an effective solar still suitable for application in the remote islands with low freshwater sources but easy access to sea water and rich solar irradiance. Integrating a conventional passive double-slope solar still with an evacuated solar water heater, fins and wick material improves the heat transfer rate through the brine in the basin and increases effective evaporative surface area. Experiments were conducted using batch mode operation during the periods September to October 2021 for the passive solar stills and November 2021 for the active solar still. Experimental results reveal that the augmentation of fins, wicks and a solar water heater influences the overall distillate output of the solar still. The combined use of fins, wicks and a solar water heater increases the average daily productivity by 147% and the average daytime hourly productivity by 245% compared to the conventional passive solar still under similar average solar radiation levels. Using the present design, the active solar still under the solar environment of the testing location can provide 4.4 L of potable water per day. However, to achieve the minimum requirement of 7.5 L/day per person set by WHO, the present design should be modified by increasing the absorber area of the active solar still by 63% and adding eight more evacuated tubes to the solar water heater. The estimated cost per liter of potable water generated by the active (modified) solar still showed that bottled water sold in a typical remote county (Penghu) in Taiwan was 117–283% more expensive than the water generated by the still.

A review of techniques for increasing the productivity of passive solar stills

The efficiency and distillate output of traditional passive solar till is poor. Various investigators and researchers have modified the design components of passive solar still to enhance the performance and productivity. The influence of several changed designs is investigated in this study. It is seen that Fresnel lens integrated with single-slope single-basin passive solar still increases productivity by 638.02% and proved to be a superior design among all the design modification. Hybrid solar, when combined with a PV/T collector, increases production by 370 percent. A tubular design with a semi-circular trough packed with black fabric and consisting of connected to an external reflector shows the most significant improvement with 676 percent. This review shows that wick coupled with tubular solar still is most productive design for industrial application, whereas, the cascade passive single-basin single-slope solar system is the most appropriate design for domiciliary application.

Passive solar stills coupled with Fresnel lens and phase change material for sustainable solar desalination in the tropics

Passive solar still is one of the solutions to mitigate water scarcity for its simple design and its least demand on electrical energy. However, the production from passive still is limited due to low efficiency. In this study, a refraction-based concentration of solar irradiation is introduced to improve the performance of conventional passive solar stills used for desalination in tropical weather of Malaysia. Performance evaluation in terms of efficiency and productivity is conducted on two passive double slope single basin solar stills coupled with Fresnel lens (FRL) and Phase Change Material (PCM). Both prototypes showed a similar trend in the augmentation of efficiency and productivity. The experimental values of daily water yield show a good match with the theoretical values. The highest water yield recorded from a prototype coupled with FRL was 3.19 L/m2/d. With FRL, the efficiency has reached 37% from 28% compared to conventional design. An increase in productivity (g/kJ) by 60% compared to the conventional still was also observed. Further studies were conducted to observe the effect of PCM energy storage. PCM alone stabilized the process with enhanced productivity. FRL coupled PCM system was able to reach an efficiency of 32% compared to conventional still. The collected freshwater from the 35,000-ppm saline solution produced by the prototypes was very high quality and complied well with World Health Organization (WHO) standard.

Performance analysis of solar energy based passive water purification system

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.

Influence of Various Basin Types on Performance of Passive Solar Still: A Review

Passive solar still is the simplest design for distilling seawater by harnessing solar energy. Although it is undeniable that solar still is a promising device to provide an additional freshwater source for global increasing water demand, low thermal efficiency along with daily distillate yield are its major disadvantages. A conventional solar still can produced 2 to 5 L/m2day. Various studies have been carried out to improve passive solar stills in terms of daily productivity, thermal efficiency, and economic effectiveness. Most of the researches that relate to the daily output improvement of passive solar still concentrates on enhancing evaporation or/and condensation processes. While the condensation process is influenced by wind velocity and characteristics of the condensed surface, the evaporation process is mainly affected by the temperature of basin water. Different parameters affect the brackish water temperature such as solar radiation, design parameters (for example water depth, insulators, basin liner absorptivity, reflectors, sun tracking system, etc). The inclined angle of the top cover is suggested to equal the latitude of the experimental place. Moreover, the decrease of water depth was obtained as a good operational parameter, however, the shallow water depth is required additional feed water for ensuring no dry spot existence. Reflectors and sun-tracking systems help solar still absorb as much solar intensity as possible. The internal reflector can enhance daily yield and efficiency of stepped solar still up to 75% and 56% respectively, whereas, passive solar still with the support of a sun-tracking system improved daily yield up to 22%. Despite large efforts to investigate the impact of the different parameters on passive solar distillation, the effect of the basin liner (including appropriate shapes and type of material), needs to be analyzed for improvement in practical utilization. The present work has reviewed the investigation of the solar still performance with various types of basin liner. The review of solar stills has been conducted critically with rectangular basin, fins basin, corrugated basin, wick type, steps shape, and cylindrical shape basin with variety of top cover shapes. The findings from this work conclude that the basin liner with a cylindrical shape had better performance in comparison with other metal types and provides higher freshwater output. Stepped type, inclined, fin absorber, and corrugated shapes had the efficient performance. Further exploration revealed that copper is the best-used material for the productivity of passive solar still.