Effect of climatic, design and operational parameters on the yield of a simple solar still

This paper reports the USC of a mathematical model to predict the productivity of a simple solar still under different climatic, design and operational parameters in Oman. The shallow water basin, 23degrees cover tilt angle, 0.1 in insulation thickness and asphalt coating of the solar still were found to be the optimum design parameters that produced an average annual solar still yield of 4.15 kg/m(2) day. A cost analysis is performed to shed some light on the potential of utilizing an array of simple solar stills for the production of drinking water in remote areas in Oman. It as found that the unit cost for distilled water obtained from such at array of solar stills is $74/1000 gal. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.