Comparative analysis on freshwater yield from conventional basin-type single slope solar still with cement-coated red bricks: an experimental approach

This manuscript communicates the use of cement-coated red bricks for augmenting the production of distilled water using a traditional single slope solar still by low cost energy storage. The exposure area of water is increased in modified solar still (MSS) by keeping the cement-coated red bricks in the absorber. Using the energy storage material in the absorber, the water temperature was higher in the case of MSS at 20 kg water mass which was the minimum mass used during the experiment in the basin. From the results, it was also found that there is an improvement of about 34% in the temperature of water which acts as the driving force for evaporation of water inside the closed chamber. Furthermore, with increase in water temperature the productivity was enhanced by 45% as compared to the CSS. Comparison of different solar still on productivity was also analysed, and it is seen that the yield is higher in the present study by 38.8% than double slope-double basin solar still with different energy storage. The daily yield from CSS for water depth of 20, 30, 40 and 50 was found as 3.2, 2.8, 2.7 and 2.6 kg, whereas the modified solar still produced 6.3, 6, 5. 8 and 5.6 kg, respectively. Due to the reduced daily yield at higher water masses, the cost per litre of water produced from both conventional and modified solar still is higher.