EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND INVESTIGATION OF OPTIMIZATION

IN STEPPED BASIN SOLAR STILL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL

AREAS IN INDIA
Water is essential for the survival and continuation of human race on the globe.
Nowadays, water is polluted beyond tolerable level and the consumption of non-purified water
causes many water related diseases. However, pure and healthy potable water can be produced
from impure brackish and saline water through distillation and desalination. Single basin solar
stills are widely used for fresh water production. The main drawback of a traditional single basin
solar still is low productivity per unit area. To overcome this problem, stepped stills are
recommended in the place of single basin solar still. The productivity of the single and stepped
basin solar stills can be enhanced by introducing some internal modifications in the solar still.
The objective of the study was to optimize the performance of stepped basin solar
still. For enhancing the productivity of solar stills, some internal modifications were attempted.
From the literature study, four variables or parameters that significantly influenced the
performance of the stepped basin stills were identified. The identified parameters were basin
liner design, heat storage materials, wick materials and basin water depth.
The experiment is conducting at Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli,
The water temperature, glass covers temperature and distillate productions were recorded for
every one hour.
The first set of experiments was conducted to determine the productivity of stills
under different basin liner design. The second set of experiments was undertaken to select the
efficient heat storage materials for stepped basin stills. The third set of experiments was
conducted to determine the efficient wick materials. The fourth set of experiments was
undertaken to determine optimum basin water levels. From the above experiments, on the basis
of productivity, the best performing three basin liner designs, heat storage materials, wick
materials and basin water depths in their respective category were identified. Among them, the
optimum combination of parameters was identified.
For determining the optimum combination, Taguchi method is employed. On the
basis of S/N ratios, the optimum combination of parameters is identified. A comparison between
the theoretical and experimental performances stepped basin still was also made.