Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Single basin solar still with n for enhancing productivity

V. Velmurugan a,1, M. Gopalakrishnan b, R. Raghu b, K. Srithar b,*
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Infant Jesus College of Engineering, Thoothukudi 628 851, Tamilnadu, India
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai 625 015, Tamilnadu, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 February 2007
Received in revised form
30 September 2007
Accepted 18 May 2008
Available online 16 July 2008
Keywords:
Solar still
Desalination
Productivity
Wick
Sponge
Fin

a b s t r a c t
Distilled water productivity of the single basin solar still is very low. In this work, to augment evaporation
of the still basin water, ns were integrated at the basin of the still. Thus production rate accelerated.
Also, for further increase in exposure area sponges were used. Experimental results were compared with
ordinary basin type still and still with wicks. The governing energy balance equations were solved analytically and compared with experimental results. It was found that 29.6% productivity increased, when
wick type solar still was used, 15.3% productivity increased when sponges were used and 45.5% increased
when ns were used. A good agreement had been achieved with theoretical results.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Water is one of natures most important gifts to mankind. It is
essential to life as a persons survival depends on drinking water.
Our earth seems to be unique among the other known celestial
bodies. It has water, which covers three-fourths of its surface and
constitutes 6070% weight of the living world. Actually, only 1%
of the worlds water is usable to us.
About 97% is salty seawater and 2% is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps [11]. Thus, that 1% of the worlds water supply is a precious commodity necessary for our survival. Since the plants and
animals also depend on water, lack of it could cause both dehydration and starvation. Dehydration will kill us faster than starvation.
Water that looks drinkable can contain harmful elements, which
could cause illness and death if ingested. Solar desalination is the
best method for purifying the impure water in a small scale.
Solar still is widely used in solar desalination. But the productivity of the solar still is very low. To augment the productivity
of the simple solar still, several research works are being carried
out. Badran et al. [1] and Tiris et al. [2] integrated a at plate collector with single basin still. A at plate collector [3], at plate collector with hot water storage tank [4,5] was designed by
Voropoulos et al. Also they designed a hybrid solar desalination

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 452 2482240; fax: +91 452 2483427.
E-mail addresses: velmuruganvvm@yahoo.co.in (V. Velmurugan), ponsathya@
hotmail.com (K. Srithar).
1
Tel.: +914630262650; fax: +914630262649.
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2008.05.010

and water heating system [6]. Hijileh et al. [7] used sponge cubes
in the saline water to improve the evaporation rate. A wick basin
type solar still [8] was designed by Minasian and Karaghouli and
a Multiwick single slope solar still [9] was designed by Shukla
and Sorayan. Integration of solar still in a multi-source, multi-use
environment [10] was studied by Mathioulakis and Belessiotis. Tiwari et al. [11] used a multi-wick solar still with electrical blower.
Nafey et al. used black rubber [12] and black gravel [13] for augmenting the productivity of the solar still. A bafe suspended absorber was designed [14] by Sebaii et al. and a plastic water
purier [15] was designed by Ward. Double glass [16] was used
and studied by Zurigat et al. Hermann [17] developed a corrosion
free solar collector for sea water desalination. The effect of using
different designs of solar stills [23] was studied by Hayek et al.
Hussaini and Smith used vacuum technology [24], Kalogirou [25]
designed a parabolic trough solar energy collectors and Sebaii
developed a triple basin solar still [26] for enhancing productivity
of the solar still.
So, many researchers used ns for increasing the heat transfer
rate. A nned double-pass photovoltaicthermal (PV/T) solar collector was studied by Othman et al. [27,30]. A ow distribution
in solar collector panel with horizontally inclined absorber strips
was studied by Fan et al. [28]. A mathematical model to determine
the thermal performance of the single pass solar air collector with
offset rectangular plate n absorber was developed by Ali et al.
[29,31]. Energy analysis of a solar air collector with rows of ns
was studied by Moummi et al. [32]. Hellstrom [33] derived
efciency factors for uneven irradiation on a n absorber. An

V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

2603

Nomenclature
English letters
A
area (m2)
specic heat (J/kg K)
Cp
I(t)
solar ux on an inclined collector (W/m2)
Ig
global radiation intensity on a horizontal plate (W/m2)
Id
diffuse radiation intensity on a horizontal plane (W/m2)
P
partial pressure (N/m2)
Q
Heat transfer (W)
T
temperature (C)
dt
time interval (s)
h
heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 K)
hfg
enthalpy of evaporation at Tw (J/kg)
mc
condensate (kg/m2)
m
mass (kg)
U
side heat loss coefcient from basin to ambient (W/
m2 K)

collector surface inclination ()

StefanBoltzmann constant (W/m2 K4)

Subscripts
a
ambient
b
basin
c
convective
e
evaporative
g
glass
r
radiative
w
water
s
surface
eff
equivalent
loss
side loss

Greeks

e
a

emissivity
absorptivity

experimental study of thermal performance of offset rectangular

plate n absorber-plates was studied by Hachemi [34]. For solar
air heating collectors, optimized nned absorber geometries were
studied by Pottler et al. [35]. To save material content in the n
material, Hollands et al. [36] introduced a step-change in n
thickness. Garg et al. [37] had done a theoretical analysis on a
nned type solar air heater. Heat removal from a triangular nned
at-plate solar-energy collector was analyzed by Norton et al. [38].
An actively cooled solar concentratorphotovoltaic system with a
n-type absorber was studied by Sharan et al. [39,40].
For augmenting the evaporation rate of industrial efuents, Srithar and Mani developed a pilot plant with an open bre reinforced
plastic (FRP) at plate collector (FPC) and spray network systems
[18] and their performances were analyzed. Theoretical simulation
and experimental performance of an open solar at plate collector
for treating tannery efuent was compared by Srithar and Mani
[19]. They [20,21] analyzed a single cover FRP at plate collector
for treating the same. Also they [22] compared a conventional
and open at plate collector for evaporation of tannery efuent.
The objective of this work was to rst compare the performance
of ordinary single basin solar still and wick type still. Then to increase the exposure area, the basin plate was redesigned with ns
of ve numbers with a size of 0.9  0.035  0.001 m3 and experimental work was carried out and compared. The performance
was also compared by means of usage of sponges. Though wicks
[8] and sponges [7] were already used in the solar still, in this
work, they were used for comparison purposes. Theoretical analyses were also made by solving energy balance equations.
2. Still only
2.1. System description
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the solar still with simple basin.
The set up comprised of a storage tank, basin plate, wooden box,
glass cover, insulation, measuring jar, temperature measuring devices and piping. The plastic storage tank of capacity 50 l was used
in order to avoid corrosion. Water from the storage tank enters the
still through exible hoses and a valve V, to maintain constant
water level in the still. The valve V can control the mass ow rate.
Poly vinyl chloride (PVC) hoses was used for greater exibility. The

black painted still basin was placed inside the wooden box at a predetermined height. The area below the basin was lled with saw
dust for insulation purpose. A small glass piece obstruction was
xed on the inside surface of the glass cover, to facilitate the
deection of the condensate return in to the collection channel,
which in turn afxed with the wooden box. The gliding water from
the channel was transferred in to the measuring jar through the
exible piping.
This experimental setup was designed, installed and tested at
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, Tamilnadu, India.
The whole experimental setup was kept in the NorthSouth direction, with the inclination of 100, which is the latitude of Madurai.
Copperconstantan thermocouples were used for temperature
measurement. These thermocouples were xed at the following
locations: Still basin plate, water and inside of the glass cover.
Temperatures were measured at more than one location and averaged for the case of base plate temperature and basin water temperatures. Thermocouples are integrated with a temperature
indicator and selector switch. To measure solar radiation a calibrated KippZonen pyranometer was used.
2.2. Theoretical background
The energy balance equation for the absorber plate, saline water
and glass of the solar still can be written as follows [16]:
Energy received by the basin plate is equal to the summation of
the energy gained by the basin plate, energy lost by convective
heat transfer between basin and water and side losses.

ItAb ab mb cpb dT b =dt Q c;bw Q loss :

The absorptivity of the still ab was taken [19] as 0.95.

I(t), the total solar ux on an inclined surface was obtained from
[18,19]

It Ig  Id cosi =cosh Id 1 cos b=2;

where hi and hh were the incidence angle on an inclined surface and

horizontal surface, respectively, and were obtained from [18,19].
The convective heat transfer between basin and water was taken [16] as

Q c; bw hc; bw Ab T b  T w :

2604

V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of the ordinary solar still.

The convective heat transfer between basin and water was taken
[9] as 135 W/m2 K. The heat loss from basin to ambient was
taken [16] as

Q loss U b Ab T b  T a ;

The constants a1, a2, a3 and a4 are calculated from

a1 4206:8  6:6197S 1:2288  102 S2 ;

a2 1:1262 5:4178  102 S  2:2719  104 S2 ;
a3 1:2026  102  5:5366  104 S 1:8906  106 S2 ;

where Ub was taken [16] as 14 W/m2 K.

The energy balance for the saline water is as follows:
Energy received by the saline water in the still (from sun and
base) is equal to the summation of energy lost by convective heat
transfer between water and glass, radiative heat transfer between
water and glass, evaporative heat transfer between water and glass
and energy gained by the saline water.

where S is the salinity of the water.

Energy gained by the glass cover (from sun and convective,
radiative and evaporative heat transfer from water to glass) was
equal to the summation of energy lost by radiative heat transfer
between glass and sky and energy gained by glass.

Itaw Aw Q c; bw Q c;w-g Q r;wg Q e;w-g mw cp;w dT w =dt

Itag Ag Q c;w-g Q r;wg Q e;w-g Qr;g-sky mg cp;g dT g =dt:

5

The mass of water mw in the still was taken as 20 kg and is maintained constant.
The absorptivity of the water aw is taken [16] as 0.05.
The convective heat transfer between water and glass was given
by [16]

Q c;w-g hc;w-g Aw T w  T g :

The convective heat transfer coefcient between water and glass

was given by [9]

(
hc;w-g 0:884 T w  T g

Pw  P g T w 273
268:9  103  Pw 

)1=3
:

The radiative heat transfer between water and glass was given by
[16]

Q r;wg hr;wg Aw T w  T g :

The radiative heat transfer coefcient between water and glass was
given by [9]

hr;wg eeff rT w 2732 T g 2732 T w T g 546;

where

eeff 1=ew 1=eg  11 :

10

12

The evaporative heat transfer between water and glass was given by
[16]

Q e;w-g he;w-g Aw T w  T g :

13

The evaporative heat transfer coefcient between water and glass

was given by [16]

he;w-g 16:273  103 hc;w-g pw  pg =T w  T g :

14

The radiative heat transfer between glass and sky was given by [16]

Q r;g-sky hr;g-sky Ag T g  T sky :

15

The radiative heat transfer coefcient between glass and sky is given by [9]

hr;g-sky erT g 2734  T sky 2734 =T g  T sky :

16

Initially, the time interval was assumed as 5 s and water temperature, glass temperature and plate temperature are taken as ambient
temperature. The change in basin temperature (dTb), increase in saline water temperature (dTw) and glass temperature (dTg) were computed by solving Eqs. (1), (5) and (12), respectively. For evaluating,
the above-mentioned temperatures in the simulation, the experimentally measured values of solar radiation and ambient temperature of the corresponding day and hour were used.
The total condensation rate was given by [16]

dmc =dt he;w-g T w  T g =hfg :

The effective sky temperature

T sky T a  6:

a4 6:8774  107 1:517  106 S  4:4268  109 S2 ;

17

For the next time step, the parameter is redened as

11

T w T w dT w ;

18

The specic heat of the saline water Cp,w was calculated from [19]

T g T g dT g ;

19

C s a1 a2 T s a3 T 2s a4 T 3s :

T b T b dT b :

20

V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

The iteration was continued for 8 h duration from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

using the actual metrological and operational data.
3. Still with sponges
3.1. System description
To increase the exposure area, sponges were used as shown in
Fig. 2. Due to capillary action, the sponges suck water to the top
exposure surface of the sponges causes increases in evaporation.
In this work, 450 sponges of size 20 mm  35 mm  35 mm were
used. The ratio between volumes of sponge to that of the basin
water was maintained as 20%. Make up water is added to the still
for every half an hour. The distilled water was collected by a measuring beaker and measured.

2605

low reservoir to store some water as shown in Fig. 3. The reservoir

has the capacity of 40 l and 4 kg of water was taken for experimentation. By the capillary action, water from the reservoir was sucked
in and it was exposed to solar radiations. Since the water would be
at ne droplets and the distance between water and glass was very
less, it would absorb more solar energy and vaporized at a faster
rate.
The other things like glass inclination, insulation material, storage tank, piping and measuring equipments and methods were
same as simple still.
4.2. Theoretical background
Similar to the previous modications, Eqs. (1)(20) were used
for the simulation. The depth and mass of the water in the still
were taken as 4 mm and 4 kg, respectively.

3.2. Theoretical background

5. Still with ns at the basin
Eqs. (1)(20) were used for theoretical simulation in this modication. The area of the basin plate remains constant. But the area
of the free surface water was taken into account to include the
sponge exposure area.
4. Wick type solar still
4.1. System description
Fig. 3 shows the schematic diagram of the wick type solar still.
The modication made in the simple still was the addition of shal-

5.1. System description

Adding ns in the basin of a conventional single basin still decreased the preheating time required for evaporating the still basin
water. As shown in Fig. 4, while using ns in the solar still, the area
of the absorber plate increased. Hence, absorber plate temperature
and saline water temperature increased. As the temperature difference between water and glass increases, productivity increased. In
this work, ve ns with height, length and breath 35, 900 and
1 mm, respectively, were used.

Fig. 2. Cross-sectional view of the basin type still with sponge.

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the wick type solar still.

2606

V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

Fig. 4. Cross-sectional view of basin type solar still integrated with ns.

Table 1
Accuracies and ranges of measuring instruments

800

1.0

Accuracy

Range

1.
2.
3.

Thermocouple
KippZonen solarimeter
Measuring beaker

0.0158 C
0.05 W/m2
0.05 ml

0100 C
05000 W/m2
01000 ml

5.2. Theoretical background

All equations used in simple solar still can be used for this modication. When the ns were not used in the basin, the area of the
basin was 1 m2 and the basin area was taken as 1.0045 m2 when
ns were used. Also, the free water surface area decreased to
0.9955 m2.
The accuracies of various measuring instruments used in the
experiments are shown in Table 1. The experiments were conducted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The solar radiation, temperatures at
various places and distilled water were measured every hour.

0.9

700

0.8
600
0.7
___Experimental
- - - Theoretical

0.6

500

0.5

400

0.4

300

0.3
200

Solar Intensity,W/m 2

Instrument

Productivity, l/m2

No.

0.2
0.1

100

Without Sponge Date:16.08.06

Date:13.08.06
Withsponge

0.0
8

10

12

14

16

0
18

Time, h
Fig. 5. Effect of sponges on productivity in the solar still.

6. Results and discussion

Due to capillary force, sponges absorb more water. Thus exposure area increased. This leads to increase in evaporation rate. As
shown in Fig. 5, productivity increased by about 15.3% when
sponges were used. The maximum deviation between theoretical
and experimental analysis was less than 6.2%.
6.3. Wick type

800
700

1.5

600
500
1.0
400
300
0.5

Solar Intensity W/m 2

6.2. Sponge type

___Experimental
- - -Theoretical

Productivity, l/m

The experimental results gave very good agreement with the

theoretical. The maximum deviation between theoretical and
experimental was 10.1%. The average evaporation rate was 2 l/m2.

900

2.0

6.1. Still only

200
100
WithWick
Date: 06.04.06
Without Wick Date: 28.03.06

0.0
8

10

12

14

16

0
18

Time, h

As shown in Fig. 6, around 29.6% of still production increased

when wicks were used in the still. The theoretical analysis agreed
well with the experimentation. The deviation between theoretical
and experimental was 10.8%.
6.4. Fin type
As ns were used at the bottom of the still, absorber plate can
absorb more solar radiation due to increase in exposure area and
preheating time for the saline water decreased. Thus productivity

Fig. 6. Effect of using wick on productivity in the solar still.

increased. It was found that the productivity increased by 45.5%,

when ns were used at the bottom of the still. As shown in Fig.
7, the maximum deviation of the theoretical performance was
9.2% in comparison with that of the experimental.
Table 2 shows the comparison between experimental and theoretical data in terms of total daily water production for few days.

V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 26022608

___Experimental
_ _ _Theoretical

0.8

8. Future work

700

In this work, salt water from the tap was used. With some more
modications in the simple solar still, works are in progress to
produce distilled water from industrial efuents.

Productivity, l/m 2

600

0.9

800

0.7
500

0.6
0.5

400

0.4

300

0.3
200

Solar Intensity, W/m

1.0

0.2

0.0
8

10

100

Date: 16 8.06
Date: 28.08.06

Without Fin
With Fin

0.1

12

14

16

0
18

Time, h
Fig. 7. Effect of ns on productivity in the solar still.

Table 2
Effect of modications in solar still on productivity
No. Modication Date

Average
solar
radiation in
W/m2

Production rate
in kg/m2/day

%
Deviation

Experimental Theoretical
1
2
3
4

Still only
Still with
sponge
Still with
wick
Still with n

16.08.06 545
13.08.06 527

1.88
2.26

2.07
2.4

10.1
6.2

06.04.06 620

4.07

4.5

10.6

28.08.06 533

2.81

3.09

9.8

Table 3
Percentage increase in production for various modications
No.

Name of the author

Enhancement method

% increase
in
production

Bassam A/K Abu Hijleh and

Hemzeh M.Rababah [7]
Badran, Hallaq, Salman and Odat
[1]
A.S. Nafey, Abdelkader,
Abdelmotalip, A.A. Mabrouk [12]
Nafey, Abdelkader, Abdelmotalip
and A.A. Mabrouk [13]
Sebaii, Aboul-Enein and El-Bialy
[14]

Sponge

18%

Solar still integrated with

at plate collector
Black rubber and black
gravel
Floating perforated plate

52%
20%

Bafe suspended absorber

20%

2
3
4
5
6

In this work

2607

40%

45.5%

The comparison of the performance of previous researchers

works and present is depicted in Table 3.
7. Conclusion
The simple basin solar still was modied by using ns, sponges
and wicks for augmenting its productivity. For the yield of the distilled water, various experiments were conducted for the above
modications. Experimental results showed that the average daily
production was higher when ns were used in the still. The experimental analysis agreed well with the theoretical. The maximum
deviation between theoretical and experimental was around 10%.
The productivity increased from 1.88 to 2.8 kg/m2.

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