Design and Performance Analysis of an Innovative Single Basin Solar NanoStill

Abstract

<p> <span>The provision of fresh water is becoming an increasingly important issue in many areas of the world. Clean water is a basic human necessity, and without water life will be impossible. The rapid international developments, the industrial growth, agriculture and population explosion all over the world have resulted in a large escalation of demand for fresh water. The solar still is the most economical way to accomplish this objective. The sun’s energy heats water to the point of evaporation. When water evaporates, water vapour rises leaving the impurities like salts, heavy metals and conden</span><span>sate on the underside of the glass cover. Solar distillation has low yield, but safe and pure supplies of water in remote areas. The attempts are made to increase the productivity of solar still by using nanofluids and also by black paint coat</span><span>- </span><span>ing inside the still basin. Heat transfer enhancement in solar still is one of the key issues of energy saving and compact designs. The essential initiative is to seek the solid particles having thermal conductivity of several hundred times higher than those of conventional fluids</span><span>.</span><span> Recently, as an innovative material, nanosized particles have been used in sus</span><span>- </span><span>pension in conventional solar still water. The fluids with nanosized solid particles suspended in them are called “nan</span><span>ofluids”. The suspended metallic or nonmetallic nanoparticles change the transport properties, heat transfer characteris</span><span>tics and evaporative properties of the base fluid, The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the enhanced per</span><span>formance of a single basin solar still using nanofluids with the conventional water. They greatly improve the rate of evaporation and hence the increase in efficiency.</span><span></span> </p

Theoretical Performance Comparison of Stepped Solar Still Using Different Nanofluids

“…The design modification of a single basin solar still was investigated to improve productivity by using nanofluids and also by integrating the stilling basin with external condenser. [19]. The results show that integrating the solar still with external condenser increases the distillated water yield by about 53.2%.…”

“…The energy balance of the glass cover [21], m g Cp g dt g dτ = (α g )A g I + Q rnf + Q cnf + Q e -Q cg -Q rg (19) For conventional or stepped solar still, the convective heat transfer between the glass and the sky is given by [29]:…”

Nanofluids revisited

“…Other contributions discussed the use of the high solar radiative absorption of nanofluids for direct steam production [172][173][174][175][176]. To the authors knowledge however, no full scale (see Fig.…”

Carbon-based Nanofluid Applications in Solar Thermal Energy

“…Gnanadeson et al [55] studied with the water based MWCNT nanofluid in the modified vacuum solar still and reported that utilization of nanofluid increased evaporation rate and hence condensation rate on the cooler surface. Moreover, Gnanadeson et al [56] investigated the new ways to improve efficiency of single basin solar still. Utilization of aluminium sheets, providing the insulation and painting the inside bottom of the solar still as black increased the efficiency as 55%, 20% and 15%, respectively.…”