Performance study on basin type double slope solar still with different wick materials and minimum mass of water

Solar still is one of the best solutions to solve water problem in remote arid areas. This device is not popular because of its lower productivity. One of the methods to increase the productivity is by decrease the volumetric heat capacity of the basin. A layer of water with wick material in the basin will increase the evaporation area and enhance the production. A basin type double slope solar still with mild steel plate was fabricated and tested with minimum mass of water and different wick materials like light cotton cloth, sponge sheet, coir mate and waste cotton pieces in the basin. Still with aluminium rectangular fin arranged in different configurations and covered with different wicks were also tested. It was found that, the still with light black cotton cloth is the effective wick material. The still with rectangular Aluminium fin covered with cotton cloth and arranged in length wise direction was more effective. The still was theoretically modeled. The variation in transmittance of the cover was considered in the proposed model. The total radiation on the covers was taken as input. Theoretical values of water and glass temperatures using proposed model were compared with theoretical values obtained by Dunkle model and actual experimental values. It was found that the theoretical production rate using the proposed model were close to the experimental. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.