“PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT AND

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SOLAR STILL

COUPLED WITH EVACUATED GLASS TUBES ”
Presentation by
Anand Prakash Pannusa
Roll No 1003

Under the Guidance of

Dr. P M Meena
Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Engineering, J N V University
Jodhpur - 34200 1 Rajasthan INDIA
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 1
 Contents
• Introduction
• Background and need
• Present Status of water treatment
• Objectives
• Literature Review
• Solar Distillation: Basic Principle
• Solar Still Different Design
• Parametric study
• Development of Solar Still Coupled with EGTs
• Still Components
• Experimental Instruments
• Procedure
• Results and Discussion
• Water Sampling
• Single Basin
• Double Basin
• Sun Tracking
• Conclusion and Future Work

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 2

 Background and need : Availability of water &
removal of impurities
• Water on earth is about 1400
million cubic kilometre
• Fresh water 3%
• 69 per cent lies frozen in polar regions
• 30 per cent is present as ground water.
• Ground Water Impurities
• Salinity
• Inland Salinity
• Coastal Salinity
• Fluoride
• permissible limit of 1.5 mg/l
• 30 Districts of Rajasthan fluoride in Ground
Water above permissible limit
• Arsenic
• permissible limit of 0.05 mg/L
• Assam, Bihar, WB, UP, Chhattisgarh
• Iron
• Iron (>1.0 mg/l)
• Nitrate
• permissible limit of 45 mg/l
3
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
 Present Status of water treatment
Element Causing Reverse Activated Ultra-
Disease Ion Exchange Distillation Precipitation Boiling
Disease Osmosis RO Carbon Violet

Cancer Initiation Chlorine x B A+ x x x

A+

pH In-equilibrium Alkali Fume A+ A A+ x x x x

Bacteria Infections Disease Bacteria A+ x A+ B x A+ A+

Agricultural A+
Intoxication, Liver Disease A+ x A+ x x x
Chemicals

Hepatitis Dioxin A+ x A+ B x x x

Cancer Initiation Fluoride A A A+ x x x x

Neuritis Arsenic A A A x x x x
Nephrosis, Leading
Lead A A A+ x x x x
Poisoning
Organic Phosphorus
Phosphorus A A A+ x x x x
Poisoning

Electrolyte In-equilibrium Potassium A A A+ x x x x

Hypersensitive Heart
Sodium A A A+ x x x x
Disease

Digestive System Disease Sulphur A A A+ x x x x

Digestive System Disease Magnesium A A A+ A+ x x x

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa

A+=98-99% Removal ; A =96-99% Removal; B =Partial Removal; x(c)=Can not Remove
Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
4
 Advantages :
• Produces pure water
• No prime movers required
• No conventional energy required
• No skilled operator required
• Local manufacturing/repairing
• Low investment
• Can purify highly saline water (even sea water)

Distil water Utility

• Marshy and costal area
• To get fresh potable water
• Industries
• for industrial processes
• Hospitals and Dispensaries
• for sterilization
• Garages and Automobile Workshop
• for radiator and battery maintenance
• Telephone Exchange
• for battery maintenance
• Laboratory Use
• for analytic work

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 5

 Solar Distillation: Basic Principle
• Radiation
Small-scale hydrological cycle • Solar radiation passes through
glass cover, absorbed by black
• Still Basin painted surface of basin (basin
Liner).
• Side Walls • Absorption
Main • Top Cover • Heat absorbed by the basin liner
is transferred to the saline water.
components • Channel • Evaporation
• Side • In Solar still water is evaporated
Insulation using solar energy
• An evaporative heat transfer is a
dominant effect, which is
responsible for the production of
Processes the distillation.
• Evaporated water leaves most of
outline the contaminants and microbes
on the basin liner.
• Condensation
• A film type condensation occurs
because of inclination of the
glass cover, cohesion between
condensed water molecules, and
gravity effect.
• Accumulation
• Collection of distillate after
condensation of the vapor.
• The condensed water trickles
down to a trough, which guides it
into a container.

6
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
 Solar Still Different Designs

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 7

 1 Basin Type

1.1 Simple basin type still- Symmetrical greenhouse-type solar still

(Tarawneh (2005))
 Still material= aluminium sheet (3 mm
thick)
 Basin Area=1 m2 (1.25x0.8)
 Glass covers thickness= 4 mm
 Glass covers tilt angle= 40o

1.2 Vertical basin solar still with improved condensation technique

(Kumar and Kasturi Bai (2007) )
 Basin Area=0.5 m2
 Inner wall material=MS  Maximum daily - 1.4 L/m2 .d,
 Inner wall area=67 × 67 cm2  Efficiency -30%
 Glass cover Angle=15º (in NW)  Average solar insolation0-28 MJ/d.
 Insulation material= glass wool
 Insulation thickness=4 cm
 Condensate tube material= Aluminium
 Condensate tube dimension=L=72cm,D=0.5cm
1.3 Basin solar still with a built-in sandy heat reservoir
 12% - after the sunset
(Tabrizi and Sharak (2010))
 14-hour experiment,
 Basin Area=0.41 m2 (50 cm × 200 cm)  productivity -3000
 Insulation material= poly-urethane foam cm3/m2
 Insulation thickness=4 cm  75% increase in the still
Fig. Productivityvs. Glass
sunlightcovers
hours thickness=0.5
of the depth of cm
3 cm with 5.756 Lit/day after in comparison
productivity
Cooling and 4.817  Glass covers tilt angle=45° facing south.
Lit/day before cooling (an increase of 19%) (Tarawneh (2005)).
with conventional basin solar
 Absorber=Sandy heat reservoir still without heat reservoir.
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 8
 1.4 Basin solar still with increased surface area
(Omara et al. (2011) )

 Basin Area=1 m2 (50 cm × 200 cm)

 High-side wall depth=49 cm
 Low-side wall height=20 cm
 Still material= iron sheets(1.5 mm thick)
 Insulation material= sawdust
 Insulation thickness=4 cm
 Glass covers thickness=3 mm
 Glass covers tilt angle=30°
 Absorber=19 fins of iron sheet

 The integrated fins - 40 % increase in the

amount of distillate water produced compared
with a conventional still,
The corrugated plate as the base increases the
amount of distillate water by about 21%.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 9

 2 Weir type
2.1 Weir-type cascade solar still
(Tabrizi et al. (2010)).
 Still material= aluminium sheet
 Stepped structure of absorber
 plate size=120 × 60 cm2
 No. of steps=15
 Steps size=h=5, l=3 cm
 Angle of inclination=30°
 Glass covers thickness=3 mm
 Daily productivity
 7.4 kg/m2day - minimum flow rates,
 4.3 kg/m2day, - maximum flow rates
 The decrease in the internal heat and mass
transfer rates as well as daily productivity with
an increase in water flow rate
2.2 Weir concave type solar still
(Kabeel (2008)).
 Basin Area=1.2 x 1.2 m2  The average distillate
 Basin depth=30 cm productivity during the 24
 Still material=iron steel of 2 mm thick hours time -4 L/m2
 Insulation material= glass wool  The efficiency was 0.38 at
 Insulation thickness= 10 cm solar noon which is higher
 Glass covers tilt angle= 45° than the conventional type
solar still

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 10

 3.1 Solar still coupled with evacuated glass tube
(Karuppusamy (2012))

 Basin material= aluminum sheet

 Basin Area=100 x 100 cm2
 Insulation material= polyurethane foam
 Insulation thickness= 10 cm
 Glass covers thickness= 0.4 cm
 Glass covers tilt angle= 11°
 They conclude that when number of evacuated glass
were increased the temperature inside the active solar
still and productivity also increases.

 The daily productivity was increased

by 49.7%by introducing the
evacuated tubes and by 59.48% by
coupling the evacuated tubes along
with gravel.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 11

 4 Stepped solar still
(Assadi (1998) )
• Glass cover=2 x 1 m2
• Basin depth=1 cm
•A comparison of distillate water production between solar
still made of glass fiber and solar still made of aluminum
(depth 1cm)
•He concluded that the solar still made of fiberglass showed
higher efficiency

5 Solar still with wick Type absorber

5.1 V-trough solar concentrator with a wick-type solar still
(Mahdi and Smith (1994)).
•Apex angle =30°
•Base area of the trough= 108 squares each of 5 x 5 cm2

•The solar concentrator with the inclined wick-type solar still

yield a greater fractional increase in still efficiency and
productivity on clear days in winter than on clear days in
summer.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 12

 5.2 Solar still with moving clothes wick driven with a DC motor
(Gad et al. (2004))
 Still material=wood
 Still’s Inside dimension- l=80 cm, b=60 cm,
h=15cm
 Glass covers thickness=3 mm
 Glass covers tilt angle=30° facing south
 The sampling rate of recorded data was adjusted via the
computer program by 5 minutes. The DC motor was also
adjusted by the same program to be ON for 30 seconds, and
OFF for a specific period of time. The OFF time was taken as
5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 minutes. The ON time (30
seconds) was sufficient to keep the cloth wet. The OFF times
were tested experimentally.
 The thermal efficiency increases to a maximum of 0.43 at 25
min OFF period
5.3 Inclined solar water distillation system with wick as an absorbing medium
(Aybar et al. (2005)).
 Still dimension=L=1 m, b=1 m and h=0.2 m
 Absorber plate material= galvanized steel
 Glass covers thickness= 3 mm
 Absorber= black wick

 They observed the effects of the wicks and

concluded that the fresh water generation rate
increased two to three times when wicks were
used instead of a bare plate.
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 13
 6 ASGHT and SGHT
(Hayek and Badran (2003))

 Basin Area=1 m2
 Basin material= galvanized stainless steel
 glass covers thickness=4 mm
 glass covers tilt angle=35°
 Maintained water depth=1.5-5 cm
 Insulation material= rock wool
 Insulation thickness=100 mm
 The overall efficiency for the asymmetrical
greenhouse type still is reported to be nearly
11% higher (56% versus 45%) than that of
the symmetrical greenhouse type still, while
the production rate increased by 20%.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 14

 Parametric study

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 15

 Operational Parameter
1 Water depth

• (Hayek and Badran (2003) and (Bardan

(2007) purposed decreasing water depth
increases productivity

• Dev and Tiwari (2011) proved that a low

water depth of 0.01 m (among 0.01, 0.08,
0.12, and 0.16) is best for a passive as well
as active solar still.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 16

 2 Absorbing Medium

• Wick
• Aybar et al. (2005)
• water generation rate increased two to three times when wicks
were used instead of a bare plate.
• Charcoal
• Naim and Kawi (2002)

• The effect of charcoal pieces enhances the performance of a solar

still on partially cloudy days and during the morning hours when
solar radiation remains low.
• Maintenance
• Gravel
• Karuppusamy (2012)
• He showed that the daily productivity was increased by 59.48%
coupling the evacuated tubes along with gravel

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 17

 3 Angle of inclination
• Optimum
• Receiving maximum solar
radiation to give the highest
yield mainly depends on the
location, cover material, and
season.
• The optimum inclination is
equal to the latitude of the
place.
• Minimum
• At least 10० to avoid the fall of
condensate back into the basin
((Wibulswas and Tadtium, 1984 in) Dev and Tiwari, 2011)
• Material
• The optimum inclination is
different for the acrylic plastic
cover due to the greater surface
tension between the condensed
water and plastic cover than that
between water and glass cover
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 18
 4 Effect of Dye

• The increased absorbency of the solar energy by the water itself

• Patel et al. (2011)
• Increase of 30.38% of the productivity
• Black dye is higher compare to other dyes, while output was lower without dye.

Daily productivity for 10 cm Productivity

Dye
increase in
used With dye Without With dye Without
%
dye dye
Black 13173 10104 30.38

Blue 12679 10104 25.48

Read 11963 10104 18.40

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 19

 5 Effect of Material/Insulation

(Dev and Tiwari, 2011)

• ( Dev and Tiwari, 2011)
• Nocturnal Production
• The type and thickness of the basin material
affects the heat accumulation by the water
mass of the solar still for the nocturnal
operation of the solar still
• Thickness
• The productivity increases rapidly with an
insulation thickness up to 4 cm; thereafter, it
is affected rather slowly or at an almost
constant rate.
• Material
• Galvanized Iron (GI) sheet
• Concrete solar
• FRP.

20
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
 6 Effect of Algae Formation

• Algae formation is common in basins containing salt or

brackish waters at temperatures up to 60०C.
• The absorption of solar radiation by the basin liner
decreases with the presence of any solid or viscous solid
object, which decreases the quantity of distillate.
• Hence, it requires periodic cleaning.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 21

 Climate Parameter
1 Solar Intensity

(Dev and Tiwari, 2011) • (Dev and Tiwari, 2011)

• The effect of global radiation on the
productivity (In summer, the solar
intensity is higher than that of winter,
which results in a higher yield during
the summer).

2 Wind Velocity
• The wind velocity increased, the
productivity is reported to increase.
• The productivity was found to increase
by 35% on increase in the wind velocity
from 2.7 to 5 m/s.

22
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
 3 Ambient Temperature

• Bardan (2007)
• As the ambient temperature increased, the productivity is
reported to increase.
• The productivity was found to increase by 53% was
notice when the temperature increased from 28 to 32°C.

4 Role of Sky Temperature

• It is observed that with an increase of sky temperature, total

output increases in a small proportion

23
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC
 Selection of operational parameters
• Operational parameters are those conditions that can be
varied to improve the performance of the solar still were
optimized as follows

• Water depth
• Minimum
• Angle of inclination
• Equal to latitude (optimum)
• Dye
• Black Dye
• Water flow rate
• Minimum at a certain depth.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 24

 Development of Solar Still Coupled with EGTs
• Still Components
 Basin and Side Walls
 Material : Fibre reinforced plastic
 Area : 1m2
 Coated with : Black Paint
 Insulated with : Polyurethane (4
cm)(0.034W/m2K)
 Inner basin size : 1006 X 325 X 380 mm3
 Outer basin size : 1006 X 536 X 100
mm3
 Evacuated Glass Tubes
 Principle “Black body heat absorption”
 Two concentric, borosilicate glass tubes
 Vacuum between two tubes
Specifications of Evacuated Glass Tubes:

Length 1800 mm and 2100 mm

Outer diameter 47 mm
Inner diameter 37 mm
Thickness of Glass Tube Outer tube 1.8 mm, inner : 1.6 mm
Selective coating type AIN/AIN-SS/CU – Sputtering
Value of absorptance and emittance of the Absorptance: α ≥ 93.5%, Emission
black coating rate: ε ≤ 5%
Vacuum rate P ≤ 5.0×10-4Pa
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion 3.3×10-6/k

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 25

 Measurements
• Solar radiation measurement
 Pyranometer
 measuring solar irradiance on a planar surface
 to measure the solar radiation flux density (W/m2)
 within a wavelength range 0.3 μm to 3 μm
• Temperature measurements
 Thermocouple
 consist of two wire legs made from different metals
 welded one end, creating a junction
 change in temperature, a voltage is created
 Type J, K, T, & E
• Water depth measurement
 Manometer tube

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 26

 • Experimental Procedure
 Viability of Experiment
 Single Basin
 Salinity removal
 Optimum depth selection
 Productivity enhancement by different absorber
– Charcoal
– Black wick
• Without solar tracking
• With solar tracking
 Double basin
• Without solar tracking
• With solar tracking

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 27

 Results and discussion

• Single Basin Solar Still Coupled with EGTs

 Water Sampling
S. No. Sample Source
1 Tap water Solar Lab MBM Engg. College
2 Tube well water Farm near Umed Bhavan
3 Pond water Mechanical Engg. Dept. MBM Engg. College

 Effects of Solar Radiation

 Still productivity is proportional
to the solar radiation intensity
 Solar radiation follows the parabolic path

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 28

 • Single Basin
Effect of Water Depth
 Water depths were 6 cm, 5 cm and 4cm
 The experiment of different water depth reflects that the increase in distillate
productivity with decrease in inside water depth of still basin as studied by Tarawneh
(2005).
 As water depth of the solar still increases, the height of the walls of the solar still also
increases

S. No. Time Ambient Temperature Output of water

(h) (oC) collection (ml)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 6 cm 5 cm 4 cm
1 08:00 32 31 32
2 09:00 34 36 34 20 23 26
3 10:00 35 39 36 60 110 150
4 11:00 36 41 38 152 260 440
5 12:00 37 43 40 400 490 590
6 13:00 39 45 42.5 580 640 770
7 14:00 40.5 44 43.5 640 690 820
8 15:00 41 43 41 730 730 760
9 16:00 39 42 40 610 630 630
10 17:00 38 41 38 600 580 610
11 18:00 37 39 37 590 550 560

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 29

 • Effects of Absorbers
 Charcoal
 Black Wick
Black wick absorber shows higher productivity as compare to charcoal and bare basin. The water collection enhances
22.56 % with black wick as absorber.
Likewise Naim and Kawi (2002) worked with a solar still in which charcoal functions both as heat absorber
medium and as wick
S. Time Ambient Temperature Output of water
No (h) (C) collection (ml)
. Day1 Day 2 Day3 Bare Charc Black
basin oal Wick

1 08:00 34 32 33

2 09:00 35.5 34.5 34.5 18 32 36

3 10:00 36.5 37 37 190 360 390

4 11:00 38.5 38 39.5 430 570 580

5 12:00 41 40 42 780 910 890

6 13:00 42 41.5 43 900 940 1010

7 14:00 41.5 42 42.5 870 960 1030

8 15:00 39.5 43.5 40 890 860 910

9 16:00 38 43 39 780 730 880

10 17:00 36.5 41 38 630 610 630

11 18:00 36 39 36.5 580 540 600

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 30

 • Black Wick
Without Sun Tracking
With Sun Tracking
This setup resulted 35.30 % increase in water
production and 8210 ml in black wick.

Output of water collection (ml)

Black
Time Bare Black wick with
S. No. (h) basin Wick tracking
1 08:00 12
2 09:00 18 63 80
3 10:00 190 370 450
4 11:00 430 590 620
5 12:00 780 890 930
6 13:00 900 1032 1130
7 14:00 870 1068 1210
8 15:00 890 980 1090
9 16:00 780 910 990
10 17:00 630 870 920
11 18:00 580 630 790

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 31

 • Double Basin
• The average increase in the productivity with double basin compared with single
basin is 15.95%.
 . Rajaseenivasan et al. (2013) have done comparative study of double basin and
single basin solar stills.

Output of water collection (ml)

Double basin with
Double basin Sun Tracking
S. Time Bare Basin Basi Basi Basi
No. (h) basin 1 n2 Total n 1 n2 Total
1 08:00 0 0 0 6 0 6
2 09:00 18 16 10 26 50 14 64
3 10:00 190 110 80 190 230 140 370
4 11:00 430 310 200 510 360 220 580
5 12:00 780 470 290 760 490 310 800
6 13:00 900 590 360 950 620 390 1010
7 14:00 870 730 510 1240 760 540 1300
8 15:00 890 660 380 1040 680 420 1100
9 16:00 780 460 390 850 570 390 960
10 17:00 630 410 360 770 430 390 820
11 18:00 580 360 340 700 400 360 760

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 32

 • Double Basin with Sun Tracking
• The solar tracking increases the productivity 35.30 %
and 22.46 % for black wick setup and double basin
setup respectively
• Similarly Badran and Abdallah (2007) deployed a
sun tracking system for enhancing the solar still
productivity.

Effect of different experimental setup on

productivity
S. No. Absorber Used Daily productivity Productivity
for 4cm depth increase in %
With Bare
Absorber basin
1 Charcoal 6702 6068 10.45
2 Black wick 7403 6068 22.00
3 Black wick with solar tracking 8210 6068 35.30
4 Double basin 7036 6068 15.95
5 Double basin with solar tracking 7734 6068 27.46
Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 33
 Conclusions
• In this study, a comprehensive review of the available literature on solar
still is presented.
• Water scarcity can be mitigated with water purification
• Most energy efficient and effective purification technique
• Specific design and hybrid system shows productivity enhancement
• Manipulation of Operational parameter provides much scope of
development for better yield
• Main water purification in remote areas
• Installing black wick and charcoal as absorber, black wick shows better
results.
• The comparison of these experimental results with previous researches
shows better results in terms of higher daily distillate water collection with
improved design of solar still couple with evacuated tubes.
• Daily productivity – 6-8 lit.
• Solar tracking increases the still efficiency and overall productivity.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 34

 • Future work
• Solar desalination coupled with evacuated glass tubes has greater scope for further
research work. Still productivity can be enhanced for further by implying following
measures:
• Automated solar tracking system
 more solar energy harnessing at same base area.
• Absorbing medium
 like pebbles, corrugated basin can be tested for higher productivity.
• Multi-basin solar still coupled with evacuated glass tubes
 maximizing the water productivity.
• Still coupled with hybrid system
 Input water to the basin can be heated by external means which will increase overall efficiency of the
desalination system.
• Cooling of glass cover
 enhance the overall water collection.
• Improving the overall design making arrangement of the scheduled maintenance
and cleaning ergonomics proves this system for commercial production for low cost
water distillation system.

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 35

 • Paper publication
In IJSER Research publication
(Volume 8, Issue 4, April 17)

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 36

Presented by Anand Prakash Pannusa (c) Solar Engineering Lab, MBMEC 37