DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR STILL

Solar still is widely used in solar desalination processes. But the productivity of the solar still is very low. To enhance the productivity of the single basin solar still many research works is being carried out up till now. In this work change the design of solar still used stepped solar still. Study the shape of the absorber surface over the distillate yield obtained the shape of the absorber surface provided in the basins of solar stills. The shape of use absorber surface plate area convex and concave increase basin water temperature cause the productivity and efficiency increase. In this work, to augment evaporation of the still basin water, fins were integrated at the basin of the still. Thus production rate accelerated. Also, for further increase in exposure area sponges were used. Production increases by fin and sponges stepped solar still. Experimental results were compared with conventional basin type still and still with wicks. That stepped solar stills can increase the distillate productivity about conventional solar stills, many reports studied the performance of stepped solar still. We are attempting to study the present status of different designs and performance of stepped solar stills enhances the productivity and efficiency of stepped solar still.