The effect of thermosyphon process to augment the distillate yield in single slope solar still linked with compound conical concentrator

Abstract

Solar stills made of stainless steel still are most durable and low cost. This is especially important for villages, where pos-sibility of mishandling exists. Present work evaluates stainless steel basin still of area (0.7 m x 0.7 m) with insulation at the bottom of height as 15 cm and side gaps of 10 cm between outer cover and stainless steel basin using locally available sawdust. A spherical copper absorber of water storage capacity of 4 1/2 liter is used. The aperture area of the compound conical concentrator (CCC) of 92 cm is integrated with the system. The still and absorber of the CCC is linked under thermosyphon mode to transfer heat to the basin water. The thermal performance of the system is studied by measuring the different parameters such as water temperature, air temperature, top cover temperature, inlet and outlet temperature, ambient temperature, solar radiation and distillate yield. The daily yield collection is 1.522 liter/day in low solar radiation condition.