Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Single basin solar still with fin for enhancing productivity

V. Velmurugan a,1, M. Gopalakrishnan b, R. Raghu b, K. Srithar b,*
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Infant Jesus College of Engineering, Thoothukudi 628 851, Tamilnadu, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai 625 015, Tamilnadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Distilled water productivity of the single basin solar still is very low. In this work, to augment evaporation
Received 5 February 2007 of the still basin water, fins were integrated at the basin of the still. Thus production rate accelerated.
Received in revised form Also, for further increase in exposure area sponges were used. Experimental results were compared with
30 September 2007
ordinary basin type still and still with wicks. The governing energy balance equations were solved ana-
Accepted 18 May 2008
Available online 16 July 2008
lytically and compared with experimental results. It was found that 29.6% productivity increased, when
wick type solar still was used, 15.3% productivity increased when sponges were used and 45.5% increased
when fins were used. A good agreement had been achieved with theoretical results.
Keywords:
Solar still
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Desalination
Productivity
Wick
Sponge
Fin

1. Introduction
Water is one of nature’s most important gifts to mankind. It is
essential to life as a person’s survival depends on drinking water.
Our earth seems to be unique among the other known celestial
bodies. It has water, which covers three-fourths of its surface and
constitutes 60–70% weight of the living world. Actually, only 1%
of the world’s water is usable to us.
About 97% is salty seawater and 2% is frozen in glaciers and po-
lar ice caps [11]. Thus, that 1% of the world’s water supply is a pre-
cious commodity necessary for our survival. Since the plants and
animals also depend on water, lack of it could cause both dehydra-
tion and starvation. Dehydration will kill us faster than starvation.
Water that looks drinkable can contain harmful elements, which
could cause illness and death if ingested. Solar desalination is the
best method for purifying the impure water in a small scale.
Solar still is widely used in solar desalination. But the produc-
tivity of the solar still is very low. To augment the productivity
of the simple solar still, several research works are being carried
out. Badran et al. [1] and Tiris et al. [2] integrated a flat plate col-
lector with single basin still. A flat plate collector [3], flat plate col-
lector with hot water storage tank [4,5] was designed by
Voropoulos et al. Also they designed a hybrid solar desalination
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 452 2482240; fax: +91 452 2483427.
E-mail addresses: velmuruganvvm@yahoo.co.in (V. Velmurugan), ponsathya@
hotmail.com (K. Srithar).
1
Tel.: +914630262650; fax: +914630262649.
and water heating system [6]. Hijileh et al. [7] used sponge cubes
in the saline water to improve the evaporation rate. A wick basin
type solar still [8] was designed by Minasian and Karaghouli and
a Multiwick single slope solar still [9] was designed by Shukla
and Sorayan. Integration of solar still in a multi-source, multi-use
environment [10] was studied by Mathioulakis and Belessiotis. Ti-
wari et al. [11] used a multi-wick solar still with electrical blower.
Nafey et al. used black rubber [12] and black gravel [13] for aug-
menting the productivity of the solar still. A baffle suspended ab-
sorber was designed [14] by Sebaii et al. and a plastic water
purifier [15] was designed by Ward. Double glass [16] was used
and studied by Zurigat et al. Hermann [17] developed a corrosion
free solar collector for sea water desalination. The effect of using
different designs of solar stills [23] was studied by Hayek et al.
Hussaini and Smith used vacuum technology [24], Kalogirou [25]
designed a parabolic trough solar energy collectors and Sebaii
developed a triple basin solar still [26] for enhancing productivity
of the solar still.
So, many researchers used fins for increasing the heat transfer
rate. A finned double-pass photovoltaic–thermal (PV/T) solar col-
lector was studied by Othman et al. [27,30]. A flow distribution
in solar collector panel with horizontally inclined absorber strips
was studied by Fan et al. [28]. A mathematical model to determine
the thermal performance of the single pass solar air collector with
offset rectangular plate fin absorber was developed by Ali et al.
[29,31]. Energy analysis of a solar air collector with rows of fins
was studied by Moummi et al. [32]. Hellstrom [33] derived
efficiency factors for uneven irradiation on a fin absorber. An

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2008.05.010
 V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608
Nomenclature
English letters
A area (m2)
Cp specific heat (J/kg K)
I(t) solar flux on an inclined collector (W/m2)
Ig global radiation intensity on a horizontal plate (W/m2)
Id diffuse radiation intensity on a horizontal plane (W/m2)
P partial pressure (N/m2)
Q Heat transfer (W)
T temperature (°C)
dt time interval (s)
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
hfg enthalpy of evaporation at Tw (J/kg)
mc condensate (kg/m2)
m mass (kg)
U side heat loss coefficient from basin to ambient (W/
m2 K)
Greeks
e emissivity
a absorptivity
experimental study of thermal performance of offset rectangular
plate fin absorber-plates was studied by Hachemi [34]. For solar
air heating collectors, optimized finned absorber geometries were
studied by Pottler et al. [35]. To save material content in the fin
material, Hollands et al. [36] introduced a ‘step-change’ in fin
thickness. Garg et al. [37] had done a theoretical analysis on a
finned type solar air heater. Heat removal from a triangular finned
flat-plate solar-energy collector was analyzed by Norton et al. [38].
An actively cooled solar concentrator–photovoltaic system with a
fin-type absorber was studied by Sharan et al. [39,40].
For augmenting the evaporation rate of industrial effluents, Sri-
thar and Mani developed a pilot plant with an open fibre reinforced
plastic (FRP) flat plate collector (FPC) and spray network systems
[18] and their performances were analyzed. Theoretical simulation
and experimental performance of an open solar flat plate collector
for treating tannery effluent was compared by Srithar and Mani
[19]. They [20,21] analyzed a single cover FRP flat plate collector
for treating the same. Also they [22] compared a conventional
and open flat plate collector for evaporation of tannery effluent.
The objective of this work was to first compare the performance
of ordinary single basin solar still and wick type still. Then to in-
crease the exposure area, the basin plate was redesigned with fins
of five numbers with a size of 0.9  0.035  0.001 m3 and experi-
mental work was carried out and compared. The performance
was also compared by means of usage of sponges. Though wicks
[8] and sponges [7] were already used in the solar still, in this
work, they were used for comparison purposes. Theoretical analy-
ses were also made by solving energy balance equations.
2. Still only
2.1. System description
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the solar still with simple basin.
The set up comprised of a storage tank, basin plate, wooden box,
glass cover, insulation, measuring jar, temperature measuring de-
vices and piping. The plastic storage tank of capacity 50 l was used
in order to avoid corrosion. Water from the storage tank enters the
still through flexible hoses and a valve V, to maintain constant
water level in the still. The valve ‘V’ can control the mass flow rate.
Poly vinyl chloride (PVC) hoses was used for greater flexibility. The
2603
b collector surface inclination (°)
r Stefan–Boltzmann constant (W/m2 K4)
Subscripts
a ambient
b basin
c convective
e evaporative
g glass
r radiative
w water
s surface
eff equivalent
loss side loss
black painted still basin was placed inside the wooden box at a pre-
determined height. The area below the basin was filled with saw
dust for insulation purpose. A small glass piece obstruction was
fixed on the inside surface of the glass cover, to facilitate the
deflection of the condensate return in to the collection channel,
which in turn affixed with the wooden box. The gliding water from
the channel was transferred in to the measuring jar through the
flexible piping.
This experimental setup was designed, installed and tested at
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, Tamilnadu, India.
The whole experimental setup was kept in the North–South direc-
tion, with the inclination of 100, which is the latitude of Madurai.
Copper–constantan thermocouples were used for temperature
measurement. These thermocouples were fixed at the following
locations: Still basin plate, water and inside of the glass cover.
Temperatures were measured at more than one location and aver-
aged for the case of base plate temperature and basin water tem-
peratures. Thermocouples are integrated with a temperature
indicator and selector switch. To measure solar radiation a cali-
brated Kipp–Zonen pyranometer was used.
2.2. Theoretical background
The energy balance equation for the absorber plate, saline water
and glass of the solar still can be written as follows [16]:
Energy received by the basin plate is equal to the summation of
the energy gained by the basin plate, energy lost by convective
heat transfer between basin and water and side losses.
IðtÞAb ab ¼ mb cpb ½dT b =dt þ Q c;bw þ Q loss : ð1Þ
The absorptivity of the still ab was taken [19] as 0.95.
I(t), the total solar flux on an inclined surface was obtained from
[18,19]
IðtÞ ¼ ðIg  Id Þðcosi =cosh Þ þ Id ð1 þ cos bÞ=2; ð2Þ
where hi and hh were the incidence angle on an inclined surface and
horizontal surface, respectively, and were obtained from [18,19].
The convective heat transfer between basin and water was ta-
ken [16] as
Q c; bw ¼ hc; bw Ab ðT b  T w Þ: ð3Þ
2604 V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608
Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of the ordinary solar still.
The convective heat transfer between basin and water was taken
[9] as 135 W/m2 K. The heat loss from basin to ambient was
taken [16] as
Q loss ¼ U b Ab ðT b  T a Þ;
where Ub was taken [16] as 14 W/m2 K.
The energy balance for the saline water is as follows:
Energy received by the saline water in the still (from sun and
base) is equal to the summation of energy lost by convective heat
transfer between water and glass, radiative heat transfer between
water and glass, evaporative heat transfer between water and glass
and energy gained by the saline water.
IðtÞaw Aw þ Q c; bw ¼ Q c;w-g þ Q r;w—g þ Q e;w-g þ mw cp;w ðdT w =dtÞ
The mass of water ‘mw’ in the still was taken as 20 kg and is main-
tained constant.
The absorptivity of the water aw is taken [16] as 0.05.
The convective heat transfer between water and glass was given
by [16]
Q c;w-g ¼ hc;w-g Aw ðT w  T g Þ:
The convective heat transfer coefficient between water and glass
was given by [9]
( )1=3
½Pw  P g ½T w þ 273
hc;w-g ¼ 0:884 ðT w  T g Þ þ
½268:9  103  Pw 
The radiative heat transfer between water and glass was given by
[16]
Q r;w—g ¼ hr;w—g Aw ðT w  T g Þ:
The radiative heat transfer coefficient between water and glass was
given by [9]
hr;w—g ¼ eeff r½ðT w þ 273Þ2 þ ðT g þ 273Þ2 ðT w þ T g þ 546Þ;
where
eeff ¼ ð1=ew þ 1=eg  1Þ1 :
The effective sky temperature
T sky ¼ T a  6:
The specific heat of the saline water Cp,w was calculated from [19]
C s ¼ a1 þ a2 T s þ a3 T 2s þ a4 T 3s :
The constants a1, a2, a3 and a4 are calculated from
a1 ¼ 4206:8  6:6197S þ 1:2288  102 S2 ;
a2 ¼ 1:1262 þ 5:4178  102 S  2:2719  104 S2 ;
ð4Þ
a3 ¼ 1:2026  102  5:5366  104 S þ 1:8906  106 S2 ;
a4 ¼ 6:8774  107 1:517  106 S  4:4268  109 S2 ;
where S is the salinity of the water.
Energy gained by the glass cover (from sun and convective,
radiative and evaporative heat transfer from water to glass) was
equal to the summation of energy lost by radiative heat transfer
between glass and sky and energy gained by glass.
IðtÞag Ag þ Q c;w-g þ Q r;w—g þ Q e;w-g ¼ Qr;g-sky þ mg cp;g ðdT g =dtÞ: ð12Þ
ð5Þ The evaporative heat transfer between water and glass was given by
[16]
Q e;w-g ¼ he;w-g Aw ðT w  T g Þ: ð13Þ
The evaporative heat transfer coefficient between water and glass
was given by [16]
ð6Þ he;w-g ¼ ½16:273  103 hc;w-g ½pw  pg =½T w  T g : ð14Þ
The radiative heat transfer between glass and sky was given by [16]
Q r;g-sky ¼ hr;g-sky Ag ðT g  T sky Þ: ð15Þ
The radiative heat transfer coefficient between glass and sky is gi-
: ð7Þ
ven by [9]
hr;g-sky ¼ er½ðT g þ 273Þ4  ðT sky þ 273Þ4 =ðT g  T sky Þ: ð16Þ
Initially, the time interval was assumed as 5 s and water tempera-
ð8Þ ture, glass temperature and plate temperature are taken as ambient
temperature. The change in basin temperature (dTb), increase in sal-
ine water temperature (dTw) and glass temperature (dTg) were com-
puted by solving Eqs. (1), (5) and (12), respectively. For evaluating,
the above-mentioned temperatures in the simulation, the experi-
ð9Þ
mentally measured values of solar radiation and ambient tempera-
ture of the corresponding day and hour were used.
The total condensation rate was given by [16]
ð10Þ
ðdmc =dtÞ ¼ he;w-g ½T w  T g =½hfg : ð17Þ
For the next time step, the parameter is redefined as
ð11Þ
T w ¼ T w þ dT w ; ð18Þ
T g ¼ T g þ dT g ; ð19Þ
T b ¼ T b þ dT b : ð20Þ
 V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608
The iteration was continued for 8 h duration from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
using the actual metrological and operational data.
3. Still with sponges
3.1. System description
To increase the exposure area, sponges were used as shown in
Fig. 2. Due to capillary action, the sponges suck water to the top
exposure surface of the sponges causes increases in evaporation.
In this work, 450 sponges of size 20 mm  35 mm  35 mm were
used. The ratio between volumes of sponge to that of the basin
water was maintained as 20%. Make up water is added to the still
for every half an hour. The distilled water was collected by a mea-
suring beaker and measured.
3.2. Theoretical background
Eqs. (1)–(20) were used for theoretical simulation in this mod-
ification. The area of the basin plate remains constant. But the area
of the free surface water was taken into account to include the
sponge exposure area.
4. Wick type solar still
4.1. System description
Fig. 3 shows the schematic diagram of the wick type solar still.
The modification made in the simple still was the addition of shal-
Fig. 2. Cross-sectional view of the basin type still with sponge.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the wick type solar still.
2605
low reservoir to store some water as shown in Fig. 3. The reservoir
has the capacity of 40 l and 4 kg of water was taken for experimen-
tation. By the capillary action, water from the reservoir was sucked
in and it was exposed to solar radiations. Since the water would be
at fine droplets and the distance between water and glass was very
less, it would absorb more solar energy and vaporized at a faster
rate.
The other things like glass inclination, insulation material, stor-
age tank, piping and measuring equipments and methods were
same as simple still.
4.2. Theoretical background
Similar to the previous modifications, Eqs. (1)–(20) were used
for the simulation. The depth and mass of the water in the still
were taken as 4 mm and 4 kg, respectively.
5. Still with fins at the basin
5.1. System description
Adding fins in the basin of a conventional single basin still de-
creased the preheating time required for evaporating the still basin
water. As shown in Fig. 4, while using fins in the solar still, the area
of the absorber plate increased. Hence, absorber plate temperature
and saline water temperature increased. As the temperature differ-
ence between water and glass increases, productivity increased. In
this work, five fins with height, length and breath 35, 900 and
1 mm, respectively, were used.
2606 V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608

Fig. 4. Cross-sectional view of basin type solar still integrated with fins.

Table 1 1.0 800

Accuracies and ranges of measuring instruments
0.9
No. Instrument Accuracy Range 700

1. Thermocouple ±0.0158 °C 0–100 °C 0.8

600

Solar Intensity,W/m 2
2. Kipp–Zonen solarimeter ±0.05 W/m2 0–5000 W/m2
0.7

Productivity, l/m2
3. Measuring beaker ±0.05 ml 0–1000 ml ___Experimental
500
0.6 - - - Theoretical

0.5 400

5.2. Theoretical background 0.4

300
0.3
All equations used in simple solar still can be used for this mod- 200
ification. When the fins were not used in the basin, the area of the 0.2

basin was 1 m2 and the basin area was taken as 1.0045 m2 when 0.1 Without Sponge Date:16.08.06
100

fins were used. Also, the free water surface area decreased to Withsponge Date:13.08.06
0.0 0
0.9955 m2. 8 10 12 14 16 18
The accuracies of various measuring instruments used in the
Time, h
experiments are shown in Table 1. The experiments were con-
ducted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The solar radiation, temperatures at Fig. 5. Effect of sponges on productivity in the solar still.
various places and distilled water were measured every hour.

6. Results and discussion

2.0 900
6.1. Still only
___Experimental
- - -Theoretical 800
The experimental results gave very good agreement with the
700
theoretical. The maximum deviation between theoretical and 1.5

Solar Intensity W/m 2

experimental was 10.1%. The average evaporation rate was 2 l/m2.
2

600
Productivity, l/m

500
6.2. Sponge type
1.0
400
Due to capillary force, sponges absorb more water. Thus expo-
sure area increased. This leads to increase in evaporation rate. As 300

shown in Fig. 5, productivity increased by about 15.3% when 0.5

200
sponges were used. The maximum deviation between theoretical
and experimental analysis was less than 6.2%. WithWick
100
Date: 06.04.06
Without Wick Date: 28.03.06
0.0 0
6.3. Wick type 8 10 12 14 16 18

As shown in Fig. 6, around 29.6% of still production increased
when wicks were used in the still. The theoretical analysis agreed
well with the experimentation. The deviation between theoretical
and experimental was 10.8%.
6.4. Fin type
As fins were used at the bottom of the still, absorber plate can
absorb more solar radiation due to increase in exposure area and
preheating time for the saline water decreased. Thus productivity
Time, h
Fig. 6. Effect of using wick on productivity in the solar still.
increased. It was found that the productivity increased by 45.5%,
when fins were used at the bottom of the still. As shown in Fig.
7, the maximum deviation of the theoretical performance was
9.2% in comparison with that of the experimental.
Table 2 shows the comparison between experimental and theo-
retical data in terms of total daily water production for few days.
 V. Velmurugan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 2602–2608 2607

1.0 800 8. Future work

0.9
700
___Experimental In this work, salt water from the tap was used. With some more
0.8 _ _ _Theoretical
modifications in the simple solar still, works are in progress to
600

2
produce distilled water from industrial effluents.

Solar Intensity, W/m

0.7
Productivity, l/m 2

500
0.6
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