Desalination of Water Using Modified Form of the Single Slope Solar Still and Double Slope Long Still

Abstract

Water, which is the vital substance for the survival of human beings, is perishing with every passing year. There are countries where people do not have an adequate source of potable water. Also, in coastal and arid regions, the scarcity of potable water is enormous. The leading cause of this water scarcity is the growing population and industrialization on one hand and deforestation on the other. To cater to the need for potable water, many techniques like reverse-osmosis, vapour compression distillation, electrodialysis, etc., are available, but these techniques are energy-intensive and require a substantial amount of capital to set up and operate. There are many nations with a low economy and cannot support these energy-intensive technologies. Hence, researchers have focused on methods that are not only economical but also sustainable in nature. Solar energy is one such source of sustainable, economic, and green energy. Solar still is a device that converts brackish/salty water into potable water with solar thermal radiations. Owing to their low distillate output and efficiency, these devices are not so popular. Though a lot of work has been carried out regarding the aforementioned deficiencies in the solar distiller units, still many aspects within this domain of study are yet to be explored. In this thesis, attempts have been made to enhance the performance of single slope solar still so that it can be used efficiently in coastal and arid regions. Moreover, a double slope long still has also been designed and analyzed so that it can be used in industries for the utilization of hot wastewater. In the present work, the key areas that have been emphasized are the surface area of water, the temperature difference between water and inner condensing cover, the characteristic dimension of still, surface tension, and surface turbulence. newline