Performance enhancement study of simple solar still using cotton cloth as regenerative medium

Abstract

Water and energy are the two essential requirements for the social and economical developments of the country The requirement of drinking water and energy is getting increasing year after year due to increase in human population and also increase in industrial and agricultural needs To full fill the objectives of the present scenario it is an essential requirement to identify an energy efficient and environment friendly approach for producing good drinking water The solar energy is an environment friendly and energy efficient technology which can be used as an alternative source for conventional energy resources In this research work a simple solar still with 05 m2 basin area was developed and investigated its performance under the climatic conditions of hot humid climatic conditions of Chennai in India The performance of the solar still was improved by inner side walls of the still is pasted with different cotton cloth thickness such as 2 mm 4 mm 6 mm and 8 mm The experimental observations were made during the year 2016 More number of experimental trials has been made in the solar still to study its transient characteristics The experimental observations with similar ambient variations were considered for performance comparison among different modes of operation The influences of ambient parameters and thickness of cotton cloth were assessed experimentally newline