RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol.

III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of

Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

CONFIGURATION, THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND

PERFORMANCE OF SIMPLE SOLAR STILLS
A. Kumar
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Solar Energy Center, New Delhi, India
Keywords : Solar distillation, Solar still, Solar Earth Water Stills, Multi-Basin
Contents

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1. Introduction
2. Configuration of Simple Solar Stills
2.1. Basic Principle
2.2. Classification
2.3. Single Basin Solar Stills
2.4. Inclined Solar Stills
2.5. Multi-Basin Solar Stills
2.6. Solar Earth Water Stills
2.7. Plastic Solar Stills
2.8. A Typical Solar Distillation Plant
3. Theoretical Analysis of Simple Solar Stills
3.1. Heat and Mass Transfer in Solar Stills
3.2. Solar Radiation Balance
3.3. Energy Balance Equations
3.4. Solution Procedure
4. Performance of Solar Stills
4.1. Single Basin Solar Stills
4.2. Inclined Solar Stills
4.3. Multi-Basin Solar Stills
4.4. Solar Earth Water Stills
4.5. Plastic Solar Stills
4.6. Case Studies
4.7. Suggested Practices for Installing Solar Stills
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Bibliography and Suggestions for further study
Summary

Solar distillation is an area having importance for providing drinking water to

households or a small community. It utilizes solar radiation to heat the water and
produce fresh water out of the saline or brackish water. This section deals with solar
stills, which are simple in design, construction and operation in three parts. The first
part discusses operating principles of these units, design classification and design
configuration. The components of a typical solar distillation plant are also discussed in
this part. The second part deals with theoretical analysis comprising of a detailed
account of heat and mass transfer processes occurring in a solar still, solar radiation
balance, and development of energy balance equation. Solution procedures for obtaining

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

the performance parameters are also discussed in this part. The third part gives an idea
about the performance of these solar stills, based on the results of tests during their
development and installations in the field.
Information is also included here on case studies pertaining to operating experiences
and lessons learnt in Greece, Australia and India.
1. Introduction

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Solar stills are the devices which produce fresh water from either seawater or brackish
water by utilizing freely available solar energy. There is a considerable amount of
literature on solar stills, which dates back to the work of the Arab alchemists of 1551. It
is apparent from the literature that initial efforts, up to nineteenth century, were more
focussed on concentrating the sun's rays by means of mirrors and lenses for producing
distilled water. The first noteworthy practical application of solar distillation was
erected by a Swedish engineer, Carlos Wilson, in Northern Chile in the year 1872 for
supplying fresh water to the nitrate mining community. The system design was based on
basin type solar stills made from wooden bays covered with glass. The plant remained
in operation for about 40 years (Harding 1883). Since then, much research and
development work has taken place for improving efficiency of the basin type solar stills.
The effort has also resulted in the evolution of new designs, which appear to hold
promise at the level of proto-type models. The solar stills are also referred to as
"greenhouse type" signifying the basic principle of their operation.
2. Configuration of Simple Solar Stills

It is important to understand the basic principle underlying the operation of solar stills,
before deliberating on the various configurations.
2.1. Basic Principle

Solar distillation of water is effected by introducing brackish or salt water in an airtight

assembly whose interiors are painted black. The top of the assembly is covered with an
A-tent roof of a material which allows solar radiation to pass through it, but does not let
thermal radiation (emanating from interiors including the water mass) from going out.
At the end of the roof, a V-trough is provided at each of the sides for collecting distilled
water. The whole unit is kept in the open in the sun. The solar radiation passes through
the top cover, gets absorbed predominantly by the blackened surface and also to some
extent by the water mass. As a result, the evaporation of water takes place filling the
inside air with water vapor and leaving the salts behind. The inside humidity increases
and the condensation takes place on the underside of the top cover, which is sloped
gently on both sides to allow condensed water to trickle down into the V-troughs. A
schematic diagram of a single basin solar still is shown in Figure 1.
The most important factor affecting the production of distilled water in a solar still is the
intensity of solar radiation, which depends upon the geographical position of the place,
season of the year and time of the day. Typically, the daily distillate output of a solar
still is evaluated as follows:

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

Me =

Qe
L

(1)

The daily average efficiency of a solar still may be expressed as the ratio of energy
utilized in vaporizing the water and the amount of solar radiation received by the system
i.e.

Qe
I

(2)

day

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The productivity of a solar still gets influenced by climatological factors, design

parameters and also by the choice of materials. The efforts for addressing these issues
for maximizing the distillate output have culminated in several types of designs which
are discussed in the succeeding sections.

Figure 1. A schematic diagram of single basin solar still showing air-vapor mixture
circulation. Reprinted from Delyannis E and Belessiotis V (1995), Solar Distillation - Is
it effective? Part I: Conventional Solar Distillation, Desalination and Water Reuse, 4(4),
9-14, with permission from authors.

2.2. Classification

Solar stills are classified in a number of ways. As per one category of classification
which is based on the expected life span and application, the solar stills are classified
into "permanent" (e.g. glass covered), "semi-permanent" (e.g. plastic covered) and
"expandable" (e.g. double tube and floating type) type solar stills. However, one of the
most commonly used classifications is based on the novelty of their design, and has
been used here also. Following this, the simple solar stills are organized as given below:

Single basin solar stills

Inclined solar stills
Multi-basin solar stills
Solar earth water stills
Plastic solar stills

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

2.3. Single Basin Solar Stills

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The single basin solar still represents one of the earliest designs used for distillation of
water using solar energy directly. Its main advantage lies in its easy construction and
simplicity of operation and maintenance. Basically, it consists of an airtight assembly
enclosed at the top by a cover which is transparent to solar radiation, but opaque to the
long wavelength radiation. The assembly is partially filled with the saline or brackish
water. The absorption of solar radiation by the basin liner and water causes evaporation
of water. The air-vapor mixture therefore attains higher temperature and lower density
at the water surface. It moves upwards by the convection currents established because of
the density gradient so created. When air-vapor mixture comes in contact with the top
cover which is at a lower temperature as compared to the water surface, it cools down to
saturation resulting in the condensation of water. The condensed water trickles down the
inner surface of the top cover and is collected as distilled water in the troughs provided
along lower edges of the top cover.

Several configurations have been developed for single basin solar stills using different
designs of basic structure and materials of construction. Figure 2 shows a deep basin
solar still, designed by Lof et al. (1961) and later installed in 1958 at the Solar
Distillation Research Station at Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. The cover of the still was
comprised of 0.37 m2 (approximately) window glass panels sloped at an angle of 15
with respect to the horizontal plane. Timber beams fixed on concrete block pillars were
used to provide support to the cover glass. The basin was made air tight by using
12.5 mm thick pre-fabricated asphalt mats, an impervious material, placed directly on
the soil and inside surfaces of the still walls. Edge heat losses were checked by using
foam glass insulation around the perimeter. Total basin area of the solar still at Daytona
Beach was approx. 227 m2. The depth of basin was kept to be around 300 mm. Another
design variation of this solar still is shown in Figure 3, where an air supported
transparent plastic film was used in place of window glass panes as cover glazing. The
depth of water in this configuration was kept to the order of 25-50 mm. This
configuration was also used at the island of Symi in Greece.

Figure 2. Configuration of a deep basin solar still.

In order to further explore the option of using transparent plastics as cover glazing, two
design configurations as shown in Figures 4 and 5 were also developed and studied in
detail in Greece (Delyannis and Delyannis 1985). The configuration shown in Figure 4
was used as a replacement for installation erected on the island of Symi. Although it

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

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was followed up with more installations, for example, at the island of Aegina, the
stability of these designs always posed maintenance problems. This resulted in the
development of single sloped configuration (Figure 5), with plastic sheet in stretched
condition as the cover glazing. The same design was put up at Aegina as a replacement
to the earlier installations. The use of plastics, however, has always been a matter of
scientific concern in view of their instability against weather extremes, degradation
against UV exposure, etc. A host of special configurations were developed and
experimented upon, in the quest of establishing plastics as a possible material for use in
solar stills; these are discussed later under section 2.7.

Figure 3. Solar still with air-supported plastic cover.

Figure 4. Solar still with V-shape plastic cover.

In Australia, the principal requirements for acceptance of a particular configuration
were its robustness and modular nature, in addition to its higher efficiency in utilizing
solar energy to produce distilled water. A typical configuration using glass as the cover
material is shown in Figure 6 (Cooper and Read 1974). Essential features of the
configuration are the use of cement concrete as the side members, 0.76 mm thick butyl
rubber as the internal lining, and 25 mm insulation at the bottom. The configurations
had minor variations in design depending upon the application of solar stills in large

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

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units for a community, or in individual units for small families. A similar configuration
was also applied in India by the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute,
Bhavnagar (Gomkale 1988); cement concrete was used in preparing basin bottom, while
pre-cast reinforced cement concrete was used to provide supports for cover glass and at
other places.

Figure 5. Single slope stretched plastic cover solar still.

Figure 6. Double slope glass cover solar still.

Figure 7. Asymmetric cover double slope solar still.

The Australian design with symmetrical double sloped glass cover was modified by
Delyannis and Delyannis (1983) by having non symmetrical double slopped or single
sloped glass covers, as shown in Figure 7. These designs have been applied in Greek

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
Simple Solar Stills - A. Kumar

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islands; in Gwadar, Pakistan; in Byobujima Island, Japan; and in Porto-Santo Island,

Portugal. A more sophisticated design of non-symmetrical type is developed by
Interdisciplinary Project Group for Appropriate Technology (IPAT) of the Technical
University of Berlin in co-operation with GATE, the German Appropriate Technology
Exchange. In this design, the condensation of humid air is not intended on the
transparent cover, but is cooled by seawater in a heat exchanger. The design has a
provision for an easy opening of the rear glass frame to carry out cleaning and repairs of
inside parts of the still. A tubular heat exchanger is also provided at the back cover to
preheat the feed water by utilizing latent heat of condensation released during the
condensation of water vapors onto it. A solar distillation plant applying this design was
also erected at the island of Porto-Santo in Portugal. The plant consisted of two units of
IPAT design and two units of Delyanns modified design (Figure 7) with an evaporation
area of 30 m2 each. The details of IPAT configuration may be seen in Delyannis and
Belessiotis (1995).

As seen above, glass covered solar still are shaped with either a double sloped cover
(symmetrical as well as asymmetrical) or a single sloped cover. The asymmetrical
designs are required to be oriented in such a way that a low sloped cover faces due
south for maximum collection of solar radiation during the whole day. The slope of the
cover with horizontal is usually 10, although its value has varied from 5 to 18. At
slopes less than 5, dripping of the condensed droplets may occur affecting the
performance adversely. For symmetrical covers, orientation of the axis does not have
much influence as the solar radiation is collected from both sides of the transparent
cover.
The black bottom liner may be made from rubber sheets, asphalt or asphalt impregnated
jute, or specified black paints which are resistant to saline/brackish water. In general,
any material having high absorptance for solar radiation, good insulating properties to
brine leakage and resistance to corrosion may be used as black bottom liner. Solar stills
may be erected directly on the dry ground having a layer of insulation at the bottom, as
was done in Australia. This type of solar stills are called 'ground still'. The solar stills
may also be mounted in a box, which is insulated on all sides except at the top. Such a
design is referred to as a "mounted still".
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RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND DESALINATION Vol. III - Configuration, Theoretical Analysis and Performance of
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