Performance study of a Single Basin Single Slope Solar Still using Agitation Effect

The distilled water productivity of the single basin single slope solar still is very low. In this work, the experimental modification was carried out in the single basin single slope solar still to improve the performance. Experimental attempt was carried out to enhance the solar still productivity by means of agitation effect. Agitation effect was given by using a shaft coupled with a dc motor powered by solar PV panel at a constant rpm. Experiment was carried out during sunshine hours. Performance of both conventional still and the still with improvement technique were studied under same atmospheric condition. The agitation effect breaks the surface boundary layer of water and increases the area of contact between the water and air. The addition of the improvement technique enhanced the evaporation rate of the still and hence the distillate yield was augmented. The experimental result shows that the still with improvement technique enhanced the distillate productivity by 21.67% as compared to the conventional still. Cost comparison was carried out between both the stills. Still with agitation effect yields profit 20.90% more than the conventional still.