1M. Tech. Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Radharaman Institute of Research and Technology, Bhopal, India
2Director, Radharaman Institute of Research and Technology, Bhopal, India
Online published on 31 October, 2017.
The ampleness of solar radiation available to earth is an opportunity to extract it as much as possible. The solar radiation received on the earth surface on a bright sunny day is approximately 1kW/m2. This energy is freely available and most importantly it is eco-friendly. In the present work, the performance of modified solar still (MSS) with modified steps and thermal storage material has been investigated and compared experimentally. It was found that the maximum glass temperature of CSS was 56oC at 12: 30 pm whereas the maximum glass temperature for MSS was recorded to be 68oC at 1: 30 pm. The maximum CSS vapour temperature was found to be 63oC whereas the highest temperature achieved by MSS vapor was 65oC. The maximum hourly distillate was 135 ml and 325 ml for CSS and MSS, respectively. Thus, the maximum hourly productivity of MSS was about 2.4 times that of CSS. The accumulated productivity of CSS and MSS for 8 hour duration was found to be 517 and 1359, respectively, i.e. MSS has 162.86% higher productivity as compared to CSS.
Solar still, solar energy, reflecting mirrors, desalination system, saline water, thermal storage material, distillate
