Productivity Enhancement of a Single Slope Solar Still Using Parabolic Concentrating Dish Collector

Abstract

The performance of coupling a parabolic concentrating type dish collector with a single slope solar still is investigated experimentally. The incident solar energy on the concentrating collector is transferred to the basin water stored in the solar still by heat exchanger imbedded in the solar still. The heat exchanger is fabricated from copper tubes. The experiments are conducted at summer and winter times for two systems; conventional solar still and solar still with parabolic concentrating type dish Collector for constant 20 mm saline water depth in the basin. The results illustrate that the solar still coupled with concentrating collector has higher basn water temperature and productivity as compared to conventional solar still. The freshwater productivity of solar still coupled with concentrating collector is higher than that of conventional solar still by about 75% at saline water depth 20 mm in summer and 92% higher in winter. Freshwater productivity is about 1750 ml per day and 1250 ml per day for solar still coupled with concentrating collector in the summer and winter respectively. The results also illustrate that the performance of solar still in winter is smaller than summer for both systems. In summer and at saline water depth 20 mm, the daily efficiency of the solar still coupled with concentrating collector in summer and winter season is 34% and 28% respectivelyDue to carbonization concern, generation resourc