Thermal performance of a single slope solar water still with enhanced solar heating system

This paper investigates experimentally the thermal performance of conventional solar water still with enhanced solar heating system. A number of variables have been considered including the water depth inside the still and the inlet saline water temperature to the solar still from the preheater solar collector system and the still basin geometry. The still is modified to include preheating solar system, to preheat saline water before entering the solar still, in order to enhance its hourly or daily yield of pure water. A single slope conventional solar still with solar preheating unit was constructed and experimentally tested under different weather conditions. Different quantities of water in the solar still basin were tested to find the effect of water quantity on the hourly yield and still’s thermal efficiency. It was found that 1 cm depth and finned still basin gives the best performance in terms of fresh water yield and thermal efficiency. The addition of the solar water preheater to the system has significantly increases the inlet basin saline water temperature to almost saturated temperature and saline water in the basin needed only small heat to be vaporized and hence increases the production of fresh water and enhances the solar still thermal efficiency.