Experimental and Theoretical Study on the Productivity of a Single Slope Solar Still Coupled with Flat Plate Solar Collectors in Series

The availability of fresh drinking water is diminishing as the demand due to world population is increasing, thus, solar desalination of saline water is a great solution to this problem. The process usually uses solar stills of various designs, however, the productivity of these solar stills is limited and insufficient to use for mass production. Therefore, an enhancement is required to improve the productivity of the solar still. In this paper, a single slope solar still is coupled with two flat plate solar collectors in series connection to enhance the productivity of a conventional solar still. A theoretical and experimental analysis of the system is carried out, the theoretical model used MATLAB software and was validated with other researchers, while the experiment took place in the city of Basra, Iraq in February, 2020. A good agreement was found between the theoretical and experimental results. The study found that the productivity of the still increases with the increase of water temperature, which is increased using flat plate collectors, and the solar radiation intensity. Also, the thermal efficiency and productivity of the solar still is improved when using flat plate collectors in series connection in the system.