Experimental Analysis of Single-Slope Solar Still with Solar Dish Concentrator Using Energy and Exergy Approach

The need for drinking water is increasing daily, and many research works have been carried out on converting seawater into drinking water. Natural conversion solar desalination systems were popular for producing fresh water, but the main constraint is their low yield. This paper discussed the performance variation of single slope solar still with four new different combinations proposed in this study with an objective to improve the solar still yield, i) With Insulation-Without Dish (WI-WoD), ii) Without Insulation-Without Dish (WoI-WoD), iii) Without Insulation-With Dish (WoI-WD)   iv) With Insulation-With Dish (WI-WD). The still was made up of stainless steel with an area of 0.25m2. The insulation was carried out with two layers of materials: the inner layer with thermocol and the outer layer with plywood. The bottom of the still was not insulated, and the solar concentrator dish was used to focus solar radiation on increasing the still water temperature, which led to an improved yield of the system. These experiments were conducted under the climatic conditions of 13o 8’ 58.05” N, 80o 11’ 32.38” E, at Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. This study found that WI-WD produced the highest yield compared to other combinations. The WI-WD combination produced a 25.49% higher yield as compared to the conventional still (WI-WoD). The energy and exergy efficiency analysis were carried out for the WI-WD combination, and the values obtained are 30.06 and 1.6%, respectively. The WI-WD combination produced higher energy and exergy efficiencies compared to conventional still. The results state that the maximum hourly exergy destruction in basin liner, saline water, glass cover, and dish concentrator are observed as 716.53, 53.82, 82.99, and  3836 W/m2, respectively.