Water Purification Process by Using One Side Vertical Solar Still

Abstract

Solar desalination is a rapidly growing field of research. The coming global oil crisis implies that alternatives to the conventional desalination plants based on fossil fuels must be developed. Solar desalination can be either direct, with collectors and condensers integrated with each other, or indirect, with condensers externally connected to the condensers. Direct solar desalination requires large land areas and has a relatively low productivity compared to the indirect technologies. It is however competitive to indirect desalination plants in small-scale production due to its relatively low cost and simplicity. Indirect solar desalination usually means combining conventional desalination techniques, such as MSF, ME or RO, with solar collectors for heat generation. The main advantages of the investigation is providing for water purification process in the desert of K.A.S. The paper presents the performance evaluation of one- side vertical solar still tested under desert climatic conditions of K.A.S. Hourly and daily measurements of still productivity, temperatures of water film, glass cover, inlet of brackish water into solar still, ambient air temperature and solar radiation were recorded. The highest value of hourly still efficiency is 59 % recorded at 15:30.