Performance of a single slope passive solar desalination unit—an experimental investigation

An alternate sources of energy such as solar, wind etc. had become more essential in the recent time to generate power and to ensure water and food security for the sustainable growth of a nation. In this study, a passive-type single-slope solar desalination system using solar energy for domestic applications was designed, fabricated, and tested for its performance. The experiments were conducted for 10 consecutive days under the local weather conditions of Nizwa, a city in Oman. The effect of various factors such as ambient conditions, temperatures at various locations across the solar still and air movement were considered in this study. The performance of the solar still was evaluated through energy, exergy and economic analyses. The pH value of the fresh water obtained was around 6 on all the days of experiment, which was found to be reasonably good and safe for drinking. A steady rise on energy efficiency and exergy efficiency was observed till 14 h after which there was a marginal rise in energy efficiency and drop for exergy efficiency due to significant reduction in solar radiation and the ambient conditions across the still. These efficiencies of the solar still in turn influenced the fresh water productivity proportionally. The study revealed a fact that the performance of the still and quality of the fresh water recommended to be suitable for domestic applications.