Experimental investigation of single basin solar still using phase change material (PCM) as an energy storage medium

Abstract

Solar distillation is one of the significant methods of getting fresh water from brackish and sea water by using free energy source from the sun. This is considered as the best solution for water production in remote, barren to semi- barren, small communities where fresh water is inaccessible. An experimental investigation is performed on a single slope solar still in the weather of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of phase change material (PCM) in a solar still and thus enhance its productivity. A single slope solar still with a basin area of 0.44105m2 is designed and constructed for this investigation. In this study,Bitumen has been used as phase change material to store thermal energy in the form of latent heat which offersgreat storage capacity per unit volume and per unit mass and provides heat during sunshine-off period. Results show that the efficiency of current solar still with PCM is comparatively higher than that of the still without PCM.