Performance Evaluation of Single Slope Tilted Wick Solar Still with Varying Salt Concentrations

Abstract

In this present article, a thorough study of a single-slope solar still has been conducted. The single slope solar still was modified with an inclined wick at 30°. The basin water was varied with different salt concentrations (0 %, 2 %, and 4 %). The study was performed for four different cases viz: (1) Conventional Solar Still (CSS) (2) Tilted wick Solar Still (TWSS) with 0 % salt concentration (3) TWSS with 2 % salt concentration (4) TWSS with 4 % salt concentration. The experiment was conducted under constant radiation of 500 W/m2 that was provided with the help of external panels. The functional correlation between basin water temperature (Tw) and time has been established. Moreover, from the obtained results best distillate output was acquired at 2 % salt concentration as the salt particles trapped inside the wick pores help to increase the evaporation rate effectively. The overall distillate output increased by 8.3 %, 17.5 %, and 8.5 % for Case 2, Case 3, and Case 4 when compared to Case 1 respectively.