No abstract

The availability of drinking water is one of the most important requirements of the world. Desalination process through solar energy is a very useful process for converting impure water into drinking water. In the present article a pyramidal solar still (P designed and fabricated and its performance has been compared with a fabricated conventional solar still (CSS). Sponge as absorber is being used for enhancing the quantity of distillate. The absorber increases the surface area for evaporation and this, in turn, increases the distillate obtained. A comparison of performance was done. The results show that the maximum temperature of water in the basin of PSS was 47ºC at 2:30 P.M. and the maximum temperature of basin water of CSS was 43ºC at 2:30 P.M. Maximum temperature of PSS upper glass was 46°C, PSS inner glass temperature was 54°C and CSS glass temperature was 42°C. The maximum hourly productivity of PSS is 314.47% higher than CSS basin. Accumulated productivity of Pyramidal solar still (PSS) higher than the conventional solar still (CSS). Maximum accumulated distillate of PSS and CSS are 1480 ml and 278 ml, respectively, at 4:30 P.M. The optimum water input flow was 250 ml/hr.