Experimental study of the influence of glass cover cooling using evaporative cooling process on the thermal performance of single basin solar still

Manjunath Mallashetty Shivamallaiah; S.V. Kota Reddy; V Shrikanth; Gagan Shetty; S. A. Rakesh; Jinu Mary John; Suhaib Ahmed; Afnan Aftab

doi:10.15282/jmes.14.1.2020.11.0496

Authors

Manjunath Mallashetty Shivamallaiah School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592
S.V. Kota Reddy School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592
V Shrikanth Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, Karnataka, India.
Gagan Shetty School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592.
S. A. Rakesh School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592.
Jinu Mary John School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592.
Suhaib Ahmed School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592.
Afnan Aftab School of Engineering and IT, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai Campus, DIAC-G-008, International Academic City, P.O. Box 345050, Dubai, UAE. Phone: +971 56 114 8592.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15282/jmes.14.1.2020.11.0496

Keywords:

Solar Still, desalination, single basin, evaporative cooling, glass cover cooling

Abstract

Acute shortage of drinking water has been on the rise owing to increasing population as well as shortage of drinkable water. Generation of potable water using passive solar stills is among the simplest and easier devices which make use of solar heat energy. However, the output of solar still is generally low owing to greater heat loss and needs improvement. In this paper, an experimental analysis is carried out to determine the performance of passive solar still with glass cover cooling using cold water generated using passive evaporative cooling process. The cold water required for cooling the glass cover is obtained using evaporative cooling process in the water tank which is wound with wet cotton cloth wick. The cold water thus obtained is sprayed onto the top surface of glass cover. The experiment is carried out in the outdoor conditions of Dubai from 10:00h to 14:00h and the temperature recordings of basin plate, glass cover, basin water, ambient air and cooling water are noted for every 30 minutes. The results reveal that the average increase in condensation heat transfer coefficient is found to be about 20.8% higher in the presence of glass cover cooling and the distillate output is found to increase by about 3.32 times. The average still efficiency is found to be relatively higher in the presence of cooling which is about 7.3% higher in the presence of cooling. The cold water temperature generated through evaporative cooling process is about 20.4% lower as compared to ambient temperature. Thus, the cooling of glass cover using cold water obtained through evaporative cooling process is found to be effective in enhancing the thermal performance of single basin solar still system.

References

Aste N, Del Pero C, Adhikari RS, Marenzi G. Effectiveness and weaknesses of supporting policies for solar thermal systems-A case-study. Sustainable cities and society. 2015;14:146-53.

Sellami MH, Belkis T, Aliouar ML, Meddour SD, Bouguettaia H, Loudiyi K. Improvement of solar still performance by covering absorber with blackened layers of sponge. Groundwater for Sustainable Development. 2017;5:11-117.

Panchal H, Mohan I. Various methods applied to solar still for enhancement of distillate output. Desalination. 2017;415:76-89.

Jani HK, Modi KV. Experimental performance evaluation of single basin dual slope solar still with circular and square cross-sectional hollow fins. Solar Energy. 2019;179:186-94.

Maia CB, Silva FV, Oliveira VL, Kazmerski LL. An overview of the use of solar chimneys for desalination. Solar Energy. 2019;183:83-95.

Jani HK, Modi KV. A review on numerous means of enhancing heat transfer rate in solar-thermal based desalination devices. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2018;93:302-17.

Nazari S, Safarzadeh H, Bahiraei M. Experimental and analytical investigations of productivity, energy and exergy efficiency of a single slope solar still enhanced with thermoelectric channel and nanofluid. Renewable energy. 2019;135:729-44.

Abid M, Yousef BA, Assad ME, Hepbasli A, Saeed K. An experimental study of solar thermal system with storage for domestic applications. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences. 2018;12(4):4098-116.

Sharshir SW, Peng G, Yang N, Eltawil MA, Ali MK, Kabeel AE. A hybrid desalination system using humidification-dehumidification and solar stills integrated with evacuated solar water heater. Energy conversion and management. 2016;124:287-96.

Abdallah S, Badran O, Abu-Khader MM. Performance evaluation of a modified design of a single slope solar still. Desalination. 2008;219:222-30.

Al-Hayek I, Badran O. The effect of using different designs of solar stills on water distillation. Desalination. 2004;169:121-7.

El-Samadony YAF, Abdullah AS, Omara ZM. Experimental study of stepped solar still integrated with reflectors and external condenser. Experimental heat transfer. 2015;28:392-4.

Mu L, Xu X, Williams T, Debroux C, Gomez RC, Park YH, Wang H, Kota K, Xu P, Kuravi S. Enhancing the performance of a single-basin single-slope solar still by using Fresnel lens: Experimental study. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019:118094.

Yousef MS, Hassan H. An experimental work on the performance of single slope solar still incorporated with latent heat storage system in hot climate conditions. Journal of cleaner production. 2019;209:1396-410.

Abu-Arabi M, Al-harahsheh M, Mousa H, Alzghoul Z. Theoretical investigation of solar desalination with solar still having phase change material and connected to a solar collector. Desalination. 2018;448:60-8.

Winston DP, Pounraj P, Manokar AM, Sathyamurthy R, Kabeel AE. Experimental investigation on hybrid PV/T active solar still with effective heating and cover cooling method. Desalination. 2018;435:140-51.

Omara ZM, Abdullah AS, Kabeel AE, Essa FA. The cooling techniques of the solar stills' glass covers-A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2017;78:176-93.

Abu-Hijleh BAK. Enhanced solar still performance using water film cooling of the glass cover. Desalination 1996;107:235-44.

Somwanshi Aneesh, Tiwari Anil Kumar. Performance enhancement of a single basin solar still with flow of water from an air cooler on the cover. Desalination 2014;352:92-102.

Tarawneh MSK. Effect of water depth on the performance evaluation of solar still. Jordon Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. 2007;1:23-9.

Manokar AM, Winston DP, Kabeel AE, Sathyamurthy R. Sustainable fresh water and power production by integrating PV panel in inclined solar still. Journal of cleaner production. 2018;172:2711-9.

Rajamanickam MR, Ragupathy A. Influence of water depth on internal heat and mass transfer in a double slope solar still. Energy procedia. 2012;14:1701-8.

SOLPOS. Retrieved from https://midcdmz.nrel.gov/solpos/solpos.html; 7 September, 2019.