2Department of Mechanical Engineering, MATS University Raipur, 49200, India
Abstract
Potable water scarcity is a serious global issue, and solar stills provide an eco-friendly way to produce clean water using sunlight. Their efficiency mainly depends on the temperature difference between the basin water and the glass cover. Adding an external condenser helps to boost this difference by keeping the condensation surface cooler, leading to more water output. Actively cooling the condenser can enhance this effect even further, significantly improving the distillate yield. In this study, the performance of a single-slope solar still with a separate condenser integrated into an air cooler system was investigated. A low-power exhaust fan directs the moist air towards the condenser. The condenser plate is cooled by water from the air cooler's tank, which flows over it. This evaporatively cooled condenser enhances the condensation process, leading to increased overall productivity of the solar still. Mathematical model of the design was created and validated through experiments. Effect of parameters like water depth, mass flow rate of water over condenser, relative humidity and wind velocity of air on stills performance has been investigated. The depth of water in the solar still's basin has very little impact on the distillate produced. When the depth of water in basin increased from 1cm to 5cm the total daily distillate output is decreased only by 4.9%. The mass flow rate of water flowing over condenser has very negligible effect on still’s performance. Unlike conventional still with increase in wind velocity from 1m/s to 4m/s the hourly distillate output decreases by 2.7%. With increase in humidity of air the output decreases. In Raipur, Chhattisgarh (India) for months of May (summer), January (winter), and October (autumn) the system produced 7.83kg, 3.45kg and 5.30kg of distilled water daily. The water is produced at a reasonable cost of Rs. 1.30/kg (US$ 0.0151/kg). Due to continuous cooling of condenser, the system is able to generate some amount of water even in night time.

