Solar still with a hemispherical chamber stepwise basin and additional heaters powered by a PV system

Abstract

In this work, design modifications were introduced to the traditional solar purifier to improve pure water production. A Hemispherical chamber step-wise basin and inserted electrical heaters powered by a PV generator were added to the conventional solar purifier. An experimental study was conducted, in winter time in Amman-Jordan, to investigate the effect of introduced design modifications on the pure water production of traditional solar still. The experimental results pointed out that the average values of purified water collection from traditional single slope solar purifier were 1.233 L/m 2 /d, from the solar still with hemispherical chamber step-wise basin were 2.305 L/ m 2 /d, and from solar still with a hemispherical chamber step-wise basin and addition of electrical heaters were 4.105 L/m 2 /d. The productivity of the modified solar purifier without the addition of electrical heaters was more significant than the traditional solar purifier by 86.9%, and for the modified design with electrical heaters by 232.9%.