This document summarizes an experimental study on improving the productivity of a single basin solar still. Two similar solar stills were constructed and tested, with one having a water-cooled glass cover to reduce the condensing surface temperature. Over the course of eight-hour experiments on multiple days, temperatures and solar intensity were recorded every 30 minutes. Cooling the glass cover was found to increase both the convective and evaporative heat transfer coefficients compared to the uncovered still. This led to a 17% increase in distillate output due to the higher temperature difference achieved between the evaporating and condensing surfaces.

1. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
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EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A SINGLE BASIN SOLAR STILL WITH
WATER COOLING OF THE GLASS COVER
Ajeet Kumar Rai, Nirish Singh and Vivek Sachan
Mechanical Engineering Department, SSET, SHIATS-DU, Allahabad-211004 (U.P.) India
ABSTRACT
A single basin solar still is a simple device to produce drinking water from easily available
saline water. Because of its low productivity it is not popularly used. A lot of research work is
undertaken to improve the productivity of the still. Heat transfer in a solar still mainly depends on the
temperature difference between the evaporative water surface and the condensing surface for a given
surface area. An attempt has been made to increase the temperature difference by reducing the
condensing surface temperature. In this regard two similar, single basin double slope solar stills are
taken for our study. Experimentation is performed in the premises of SHIATS-DU Allahabad. 17%
gain is recorded in the distillate output due to cooled condensing cover.
Key words: Solar Still, Heat and Mass Transfer.
INTRODUCTION
Oceans are inexhaustible sources of water covering three fourth of the earth surface. But
water in the oceans is of high salinity. Water shortage problems can be addressed by desalination of
this water. Separation of salts from sea water requires lot of energy, which when produced from
fossile fuel, can cause harm to the environment. Sea water desalination using solar energy gives
viable solution to this problem.
Solar energy can be used for sea water desalination either by producing the thermal energy
required to drive the phase change processes or by generating the electricity required to drive the
membrane processes. The energy required for various desalination processes, as obtained from a
survey of manufacturer’s data that the process with the smallest energy requirement is Reverse
Osmosis with energy recovery. But this is only viable for very large systems due to the high cost of
the energy recovery turbine. The next lowest is the RO without energy recovery and the MEB
system. A comparison of the desalination equipment cost and the sea water treatment requirement as
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2. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
obtained from a survey of manufacturers data, The cheapest of all the systems considered is the solar
still. This is the direct collection system which is very simple to construct and operate. The
disadvantage of this process is the very low yield [1].The production capacity of a simple type solar
still is in the range of 2-5 L/m2/day only. Number of methods is available to improve the productivity
of single basin solar still. The required output from the still is the condensed water from the glass
cover. The condensation is higher when the condensing heat transfer from the glass and the
evaporation heat transfer from the basin water are high. Heat transfer within the solar still mainly
depends on the evaporative surface area and the temperature difference between the evaporative
surface temperature and the condensing surface temperature. In order to maximize the existing
temperature difference between the water and the condensing surface, an attempt has been made to
cool down the condensing surface by flowing water on the condensing surface. The glass cover
temperature is reduced by a film of cooling water continuously flowing over the glass [2] or
intermittent flow of cooling water on the cover [3].The wind velocity is also affecting the cover
temperature. At higher wind velocity the convective heat transfer from the cover to atmosphere
increases due to increase in convective heat transfer coefficient between cover and atmosphere. This
effect increases the condensing and evaporation rate and productivity of the still [4, 5].
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Figure 1 shows the photographs of two similar double slope solar stills kept on a single
platform. The second photograph shows cooling of condensing cover by water flow arrangement.
The experimental setup consists of a passive solar distillation unit with a glazing glass cover inclined
at 260 having an area of 0.048m x 0.096 m. This tilted glass cover (3 mm thick) served as solar
energy transmitter as well as a condensing surface for the vapor generated in the basin. To intercept
the maximum insolation, the still was oriented in the East-West direction. Glass basin, made up of
galvanized iron sheet, has an effective area of 0.72 m2. The basin of the distiller was blackened to
increase the solar energy absorption. A distillate channel was provided at each end of the basin. For
the collection of distillate output, a hole was drilled in each of the channels and plastic pipes were
fixed through them with an adhesive (Araldite). An inlet pipe and outlet pipe was provided at the top
of the side wall of the still and at the bottom of the basin tray for feeding saline water into the basin
and draining water from still for cleaning purpose, respectively. Rubber gasket was fixed all along
the edges of the still. The glass panes of 3 mm thickness were used as covers for the still. All these
arrangements are made to make the still air tight. A water tank of capacity 500 liter is kept at a height
of 2 m to supply cooling water, to cool down the glass covers as in the photograph. The basin water
gets evaporated and condensed on the inner surface of glass cover. It runs down the lower edge of
the glass cover. The distillate was collected in a bottle and then measured by a graduated cylinder.
The system has the capability to collect distillates from two sides of the still (i.e. East and West
sides). Thermocouples were located in different places of the still. They record different temperature,
such as inside glass cover, water temperature in the basin temperature and ambient temperature. In
order to study the effect of salinity of the water locally available, table salt was used at various
salinities. All Experiments were conducted during the month of September 2011 on several days.
The experimental data is used to obtain the internal heat and mass transfer coefficient for double
slope solar still.
Procedure:
The experiments were conducted on different thirty five days in the campus of the Sam
Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences Allahabad, India. All experiments
were started at 08:30 AM local time and lasted for 05:00 PM. The following parameters were
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3. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
measured for every 30 minutes for a period of 8:30 hrs .Inner glass temperature, vapor temperature,
water temperature, ambient temperature and distillate output.
Water, glass and vapor temperatures were recorded with the help of calibrated copper
constant thermocouples and a digital temperature indicator having a least count 10C. The ambient
temperature is measured by a calibrated mercury (ZEAL) thermometer having a least count 10C. The
distillate output was recorded with the help of a measuring cylinder of least count 1 ml. The solar
intensity was measured with the help of a calibrated solarimeter of a least count of 2mW/cm2. The
hourly variation of all above mentioned parameters were used to evaluate average values of each for
further numerical computation.
Fig 1: Two similar double slope solar stills on single platform
Fig 2 Water cooling of the condensing cover
Observations recorded after 10:00 AM are shown because the temperature difference
between the basin water and the glass cover are positive. Due to higher glass cover temperature and
lower basin water temperature in the morning, the temperature difference between basin water and
glass cover is negative. Fig 3 shows the variation of solar intensity falling on the east and west side
of the glass cover. As it is expected solar intensity on the east side is higher in the morning, and the
maximum intensity is recorded at 11:30 AM. Fig 3 to 5 shows hourly average values of hcw, hew ,
hcw Dunk and hew Dunk calculated by using 8 hrs of experimental data. A TURBO C++ program was
used to calculate the values of constants C and n used in the relation Nu=C( GrPr)n.and convective
and evaporative heat transfer coefficients by the present model and by the Dunkle model also. It is
clear from fig 4 and fig 6 that the effect of cooling of condensing cover increases the convective and
evaporative heat transfer coefficient.
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4. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
Fig. 3 Variation of solar intensity of east side and west side of the glass cover for solar stills with
cooled and without cooled condensing cover
Fig. 4 Variation of convective heat transfer coefficient for solar stills with cooled and without cooled
condensing cover
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5. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
Fig. 5 Variation of convective heat transfer coefficient calculated by Dunkle model for solar stills
with cooled and without cooled condensing cover
Fig.6 Variation of evaporative heat transfer coefficient for solar stills with cooled and without cooled
condensing cover
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6. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
Fig.7 Variation of evaporative heat transfer coefficient calculated by Dunkle model for solar stills
with cooled and without cooled condensing cover
CONCLUSION
A simple method to enhance the solar still productivity and still efficiency is proposed. The
water film cooling method is used to modify the glass cover temperature in order to increase the rate
of condensation. For experimentation two, double slope solar still of same size are taken and kept on
a single platform for the purpose of comparative study. The average daily productivity of the still
was 1.424 kg without glass cover cooling and 1.667 kg with cooling of the glass cover. The effect of
film cooling on the thermal efficiency of solar still was also studied. It is observed that the thermal
efficiency of the still is improved by 4%.
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7. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 –
6340(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 6, November - December (2013) © IAEME
7. Ajeet Kumar Rai, Vivek Sachan and Bhawani Nandan, “Experimental Study of Evaporation
in a Tubular Solar Still”, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology
(IJMET), Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 1 - 9, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6340, ISSN Online:
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from Zinc on the Efficiency of Double Slope Solar Still”, International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 530 - 541, ISSN Print:
0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
9. Ajeet Kumar Rai, Vivek Sachan and Maheep Kumar, “Experimental Investigation of a
Double Slope Solar Still with a Latent Heat Storage Medium”, International Journal of
Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 4, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 22 - 29,
ISSN Print: 0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
10. Hitesh N Panchal, Dr. Manish Doshi, Anup Patel and Keyursinh Thakor, “Experimental
Investigation on Coupling Evacuated Heat Pipe Collector on Single Basin Single Slope Solar
Still Productivity”, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET),
Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011, pp. 1 - 9, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
11. Dr P.Ravinder Reddy, Dr K.Srihari and Dr S. Raji Reddy, “Combined Heat and Mass
Transfer in MHD Three-Dimensional Porous Flow with Periodic Permeability & Heat
Absorption”, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET),
Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 573 - 593, ISSN Print: 0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
12. Ajeet Kumar Rai, Pratap Singh, Vivek Sachan and Nripendra Bhaskar, “Design, Fabrication
and Testing of a Modified Single Slope Solar Still”, International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 4, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 8 - 14, ISSN Print:
0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
13. Ajeet Kumar Rai, Pratap Singh, Vivek Sachan and Nripendra Bhaskar, “Design, Fabrication
and Testing of a Modified Single Slope Solar Still”, International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 4, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 8 - 14, ISSN Print:
0976 – 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 – 6359.
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