Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol.
1, Special Issue, December 2011
Modelling of Solar Still Using Granular Activated
Carbon in Matlab
MD Irfan Ali, R. Senthilkumar and R. Mahendren
Abstract--- In the last years the demand for fresh water is
increasing tremendously all over the world. The future
demand will be very high and the fresh water resources are
getting depleted at a faster rate. We need to depend on the
brackish water and oceanic water resources for meeting the
fresh water demand. Furthermore non-conventional energy
resources are required for meeting energy demand. One best
option is to use solar energy for water distillation. This paper
is about the numerical analysis and modelling of a solar still
and enhancing its efficiency by mixing the still water with
granular activated carbon. Matlab software is used to
simulate the model. Matlab code was written for calculating
the various heat fluxes in the still, to determine the hourly
output of still and to find the efficiency of the still. Complete
numerical analysis and various characteristics graphs of still
were plotted using matlab. Simulink tool box is used to
simulate the model.
Keywords--- Solar Desalination, Solar Still, Granular
Activated Carbon(GAC), Matlab, Simulink
I. INTRODUCTION
I N the last years the worldwide amount of fresh water
becomes smaller and smaller and this causes the shortage of
water in different places of the world. One reason is the global
warming, the growth of the population in the world and the
wasteful use of fresh water. In many areas of the world there
was not enough rain. A lot of animals die on water deficiency,
because a lot of water holes dry up and so the animals and of
course the people cannot get enough water for their daily use.
A very small fraction, about 0.3%, of the available water
resources is available as fresh water [1]. A drinking water
shortage is expected to become one of the biggest problems
facing the world. To compensate for this, desalination of
saline water appears to be the best solution, since the only
inexhaustible source of water is the ocean. Desalination
processes consumes significant amounts of energy, and many
countries in the world, particularly those suffering from severe
water shortages, cannot afford the energy required for
desalination. Fortunately, many of those countries lie in areas
with high insolation rates. Therefore, solar desalination can be
a suitable alternative, provided efficient technologies are
developed to utilize the solar energy in a cost effective way.
MD Irfan Ali, PG Student, Energy Engineering, SRM University. E-
mail:irfanalimech@gmail.com
R.Senthilkumar, Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering,
SRM University. E-mail: senthilumar_mech@rediffmail.com
R. Mahendren, PG Student, Energy Engineering, SRM University. E-
mail:rmahee@gmail.com 
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5
Solar energy can be used to produce fresh water directly in a
solar still or indirectly where the thermal energy from a solar
energy system is supplied to a desalination unit.
A number of efforts have been made to develop and
improve the performance of solar desalination systems,
particularly solar stills. The efficiency of the still is directly
proportional to the inlet water temperature to still. To increase
the temperature of the water inside the still, some researches
[2,4] suggested coupling the still to solar collectors. The
results showed an improvement in the still’s performance. One
of the main reasons behind the low efficiency of solar stills,
which is about 30-40% [1], is the loss latent heat of
condensation to the environment and the sensible heat carried
away by the condensate. The use of latent heat of
condensation to preheat the feed water has shown good
improvement in the still’s performance [5,6]. The use of latent
heat of condensation of one stage to evaporate water in
another stage, as in multi-effect stills, has been studied by
many researchers showing very good improvement in the
still’s performance [7,8]. Other researchers [9,10] have
investigated the concept of evaporation at low temperatures
under vacuum conditions and reported good improvement in
the system performance. However they used vacuum pumps
which require additional energy input to the system.
This paper presents a complete numerical analysis and
modelling. Matlab M-file coding is used to find the convective,
radiative and evaporative heat transfer rates and the hourly
distillate from the still and the efficiency of the still. Simscape
tool box from Matlab simulink is used to simulate the model.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING
Performance of solar still based on productivity, efficiency
as well as internal heat and mass transfer coefficient. Hence
performance directly proportional to internal heat transfer
coefficient and distillate output from solar still. Internal heat
and mass transfer coefficient in the solar still based on three
parameters called convection, radiation and evaporation,
hence there are three heat transfer coefficient called
convective heat transfer coefficient, radiative heat transfer
coefficient and evaporative heat transfer coefficient.
A. Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
Action of buoyancy force due to density difference of
humid air due to temperature difference is the major reason
behind the convective heat transfer coefficient in solar still.
The convective heat transfer coefficient of water surface to
condensing glass cover is given by:
q cw = h cw ( Tg - Ta ) (1)
Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue, December 2011 6

Heat transfer coefficient hcw can be calculate by following
equation
h cw = 0.884[(Tw - Tg) +( (Pw - Pg)(Tw + 273.15)/ (268.9×10-
3
-Pw)) ] (2)
B. Radiative Heat Transfer Coefficient
Solar energy is responsible for the formation of pure water
from the solar still. Radiative heat transfer is also responsible
through solar energy. Rate of radiative heat transfer from
water surface to condensing cover is given by:
q r w = h rw (T w – T g )
Radiative heat transfer coefficient rw h is given by:
h rw = ε effect σ [((T w)4 - (T g )4) /(T w – T g )]
2. It is an air tight basin, hence no heat loss.
3. Heat capacity of cover and absorbing material,
insulation is negligible.
4. There is no temperature gradient across the basin
water and glass cover of solar still.
5. Water level inside the basin maintained at constant
level.
6. Only film type condensation is occurs in place of drop
type condensation.
 Energy balance for glass cover
α g’ I ( t ) + ( q cw + q rw + q ew ) = q rg + q eg (10)
(3)
 Energy balance for basin water
(4) α b‘I(t)+q w=( MC )w(Tw/dt) +q cw +q rw +q ew (11)

Here  Energy balance for basin

σ = 5.669×10-8 W/m2K4 (5) α b ‘ I( t) = q w + ( q cb + q s( Ass/As) (12)
ε effect = ( 1/ ε w + 1/ εv - 1) -1
(6)  Heat transfer coefficients
ε w = ε g = 0.9
h 1g = 5.7 + 3.8V (13)
C. Eqvaporative Heat Transfer Coefficient  Hourly yield of solar still is given by:
When solar energy is incident inside the solar still, water
evaporates and converted into steam. m w = (q ew / L)× 3600 (14)
Hence, evaporative heat transfer is given by following  Efficiency of solar still is given by
equation
q ew = h ew (T w - T g ) (7) Η =(qew/ I(t)) (15)

Evaporative heat transfer coefficient is given by

III. SYSTEM DISCRIPTION
h evp = 16.273×10-3 h cw [( pw - pg)/(Tw - Tg)] (8)
Total heat transfer coefficient from water surface to
condensing cover is given by following equation
h 1w = h cw + h rw + h ew (9)

D. Energy Balance

Figure 2: Sketch of a Solar Still

Figure 1: Heat Fluxes in a Solar Still
When solar energy is incident inside the basin water, heat
transfer mechanism starts. Fig.1 Shows the energy flow in
single slope single basin solar still. Energy balance equation
can be written with following assumption
1. There is no vapour leakage in solar still
A. Experimental Setup Description
Fig. 2 shows the simple sketch of our double slope solar
still. Fig.3 shows the experimental set up of double slope solar
still It consists of condensing cover having angle of 15
degrees. Kadapa stone is placed at the bottom to increase the
efficiency of the still and it is well insulated. Base area of the
still is 1 sq. metre and the inlet water is mixed with granular
activated carbon to increase the evaporative rate of the still.
The experiments were conducted with two water depths 0.1m
and 0.3m mixed with granular activated carbon and the results
obtained were very good, the efficiency of the still increased
to 80%.

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Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue, December 2011 7

start of experiment. Different parameters were observed and

were tabulated as shown below.

Table 1: Hourly Average Values Calculated using 8 Hours

Experimental Data for 0.3m of Water Depth on 15th july,
2o11
Time Tg Tw Theoretical Actual
(hr) distillate distillate(kg)
without GAC with GAC.
10-11 18 22 0.000778 0.00
11-12 20 30.2 0.002020 0.03
12-13 22.1 35 0.004494 0.1
13-14 23.2 43.6 0.008539 0.182
14-15 23.1 46.9 0.008896 0.240
15-16 25 45 0.006370 0.2
16-17 26.2 42 0.004357 0.19
17-18 26.8 39.7 0.003223 0.179
Figure 3: Experimental Setup of Solar Still 18-19 27.1 38.2 0.003112 0.16

IV. MATLAB M-FILE Table 2: Hourly Average Values Calculated using 8 Hours
Programming in matlab is now becoming popular among Experimental Data for 0.1m of Water Depth on 17th july,
engineers because it is easy to learn software and it saves time 2011
of the programmers. In matlab one can write program in M- Time Tg Tw Theoretical Actual
files. M-files are ordinary ASCII text files written in matlab (hr) distillate distillate(kg)
language. They are called M-fiiles because they must have a without GAC with GAC.
.m extension at the end of their name. A matlab code is written 10-11 18.2 25 0.001254 0.00
for calculating the convective, radiative and evaporative heat 11-12 20.6 32 0.002664 0.039
transfer rates in the still and also the hourly distillate from the 12-13 22 37 0.005485 0.120
sill. 13-14 23.2 45 00.010223 0.192
14-15 23.7 49 0.013457 0.269
When the program is executed and the average values of 15-16 25 51 0.010469 0.240
the basin water temperature and the glass temperature are 16-17 26.2 45 0.006092 0.220
entered the matlab control calculates the various heat transfer 17-18 26.8 42 0.004431 0.190
rates and displays a pie chart show the heat transfer rates in %. 18-19 27.5 40 0.004112 0.163

VI. SIMULINK
Simulink is the most widely used software package in
academia and industry for modeling and simulating dynamic
systems. Using simulink one can easily build models, or take
an exiting model and add to it. You have insttant access to all
of the analysis tools in matlab, so you can take the results and
analyze and visualize them. It supports linear and non-linear
systems.
Thermal Reference1

B
PS S
A T

Ideal Temperature PS-Simulink

Scope
Sensor Converter

273
Thermal Mass
Constant1

f(x)=0

Solver
Configuration
A B

Convective Heat

Figure 4: Display of Matlab Command Window where you Transfer

A

Conductive Heat

can see the Results Transfer

B

Ideal Heat Flow Ideal Temperature

B

Source Source
S
A

S
A

-K- S PS
A

Gain Radiative Heat

Step Simulink-PS
Transfer
Converter1
B

S PS
B

V. PROCEDURE OF E XPERIMENT Ideal Temperature

Source2
-C-

Constant Simulink-PS
S
A

Converter

The experiment was performed at SRM University

B

Ideal Temperature
S PS
-C- Source1

Chennai, on two different dates july 15th and 17th, for two
S
A

Constant3 Simulink-PS
Converter3

different water heights in the still mixing the water with -C-

Constant2
S PS

Simulink-PS

granular activated carbon. During the experiment, when Converter2

switching over fromone water depth to other solar still remains Figure 5: Block Diagram of Still in Simulink for Simulating
idle, minimum for a day to attain steady condition prior to Convection, Radiation and Evaporation Heat Transfer Rates

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Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue, December 2011 8

gac used as a energy storing material, and also acts as photo

catalyst. Hence because of this the evaporation rate increases
and higher distillate is obtained. Pie shows that the
evaporative heat transfer is very less compared to other rates
in a normal still, so this rate is increased by mixing the still
water GAC(granular activated carbon) . Fig 10,11 shows the
variation of partial pressures of vapour at water and glass
surface. Fig 12 variation of heat transfer rates with respect to
basin water temperature

0.35

0.3m water depth with GAC

0.3 0.1m water depth with GAC

0.25

Figure 6: Simulation Graph of Solar Still for Constant Gain

mass of distillate in kg
0.2
(Solar Intensity)
0.15
VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Higher value of evaporative surface temperature and 0.1
lower value of condensing surface temperature leads to rise in
distillation output. Experiment is conducted to investigate the 0.05
effect of granular activated carbon on heat transfer and
productivity of solar still. Hourly measurements were made 0
for various thermocouple put at various locations for 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
temperature of basin water in deg. c
temperatures like hot water temperature, vapour temperature,
inner glass cover temperature and outer glass cover Figure 8: Performance of still with GAC at Different Heights
temperature. Experiments, starts from morning 10 am and with Respect to Temp. of Basin Water
ends at Evening 5 pm. Readings have taken in SRM
University Chennai. Table 1 shows the readings of various
thermocouples, mass of distillate output, solar insolation and 0.35 0.1m water depth without GAC

time interval of One hour from 10 am to 5 pm shows in simple 0.1m water depth with GAC
0.3m water depth without GAC
solar still for the water depth 0.3m. Table 2 shows same 0.3
0.3m water depth with GAC
variables but with a water depth of 0.1m inside the still. Figure
7,9 shows the comparative analysis of solar stills at different 0.25
depths of water. Fig 8 shows that solar still possess higher
distillate output between 1pm-2 pm, means up to 2 pm
mass of distillate in kg

0.2
distillate output is increases and it is gradually decreases after
2 pm.
0.15

0.35
0.1
0.3m water depth & without GAC

0.3 0.3m water depth & with GAC

0.1m water depth & without GAC 0.05
0.1m water depth with GAC
0.25

0
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
mass of distillate in kg

0.2 ambient temp in deg. c

0.15
Figure 9: Performance of still with and without GAC at
Different Heights with Respect to Ambient Temp
0.1

0.05

0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
temperature of basin water in deg. c

Figure 7: Performance of Still with and without GAC at

Different Heights with Respect to Temp. of Basin Water.
Highest output at particular date is 0.129 liters for solar
still having 0.1m water depth and mixed with gac. Because the

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Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue, December 2011 9

120
0.35
convective heat transfer rate
with 0.3m water depth
radiative heat transfer rate
100
with 0.1m water depth evaporative heat transfer rate
0.3

80
0.25

heat transfer rates in W/sq.m K

60
mass of distillate in kg

0.2

40

0.15

20

0.1

0
26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46
temperature of basin water in deg c
0.05

Figure 13: Temperature of Basin Water Vs Heat Transfer

0
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Rates
ambient temperature in deg. c

Figure 10: Performance of still with GAC at Different Heights heat transfer rates

with Respect to Ambient Temp < 1%

temperature of basin water vs partial pressure of vapour in still

0.11

41%
0.1 partial pressure of vapour at water surface
partial pressure of vapour at glass surface

0.09

0.08 59%
partial pressure of vapour in milli bar

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04
Figure 14: Pie Chart Showing Various Heat Transfer Rates
0.03

NOMENCLATURE
0.02
26 28 30 32 34 36 38
temperature of basin water in deg c
40 42 44 46
 Ac – Area of cover, m 2
 As — Area of basin liner, m 2
Figure 11: Temperature of Basin Water Vs Partial Pressure of
 Ass — Area of solar still sides, m 2
Vapour at Water and Glass Surface
 h cw — Convective heat transfer coefficient from
0.11 water to cover, W/ m 2 /C
 h w — Convective heat transfer coefficient from basin
PP of vapour at water surface
PP of vapour at glass surface
0.1

liner to water, W/ m 2 /C
0.09
 h cw — Convective heat transfer coefficient from
0.08 bottom insulation to ambient,W/ m 2 /C
partial pressure of vapour in milli bar

0.07
 h rb — Radiative heat transfer coefficient from
bottom insulation to ambient,W/ m 2 /C
0.06
 h rw — Radiative heat transfer coefficient from water
0.05 to cover, m 2 /C
0.04
 h ew — Evaporative heat transfer coefficient from
water to cover, m 2 /C
0.03
 h 1w — Total heat transfer coefficient from water to
0.02 cover, m 2 /C

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
temperature of glass in deg c h 1g — Total heat transfer coefficient from cover to
Figure 12: Temperature of Glass vs Partial Pressure of Vapour atmosphere, m 2 /C
 I(t) — Total solar radiation, W /m 2
 Ki — Thermal conductivity of insulating
 material, W/m/C
 L — Latent heat of vaporization, J/kg
 Li — Thickness of insulation, m

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Bonfring International Journal of Power Systems and Integrated Circuits, Vol. 1, Special Issue, December 2011 10

 (MC) w — Heat capacity of water mass in basin, J/m [11] Salah Abdallah, Omar Badran and Mazen M. AbuKhader Salah
2 Abdullah et.al, 2008, Performance evaluation of a modified design of a
/C single slope solar still, Desalination 219, pp. 222–230.
 M ew — Distillate output from still, L/m 2 /day
 P g — Partial pressure at cover temperature, N/m2
 P w — Partial pressure at basin water temperature,
N/m 2
 q cw — Convective heat transfer from water to cover,
W/m 2
 q rw — Radiative heat transfer from water to cover,
W/ m 2
 q ew — Evaporative heat transfer from water to cover,
W/ m 2
 q loss — Overall heat loss from water surface to
ambient through top and bottom, W/ m 2
 q cb — Heat transfer from base to ambient by
conduction, W/m2
 q s — Side heat loss to ambient by conduction, W/ m
2

 q cg — Convective heat loss from cover to ambient,

W/ m 2
 q rg — Radiative heat loss from cover to ambient, W/
m2
 T a — Ambient temperature, C
 T g — Cover temperature, C
 T w — Basin water temperature, C

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We sincerely thank Dr. Nikolai Khartchenko for his
overwhelming support in building the mathematical model and
code in matlab.

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[1] E. Delyannis and V. Belesssiotis, Solar energy and desalination, in:
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