Solar still with evacuated tubes and calcium stones to enhance the yield: An experimental investigation

Abstract

Present research study shows the evacuated tubes coupled with solar still to enhance the yield. Basin area of 1-meter square taken for the experiments and 14 evacuated tubes have been used at a lower side of the still. Calcium stones as sensible heat storage material (SHSM) have also been utilized to enhance the yield in present work. Three modes of experiments have been performed namely conventional solar still (CSS), solar still with evacuated tubes (SSET) and solar still with evacuated tubes and calcium stones (SSETCS) during January to June 2019 at Patan District, Gujarat. Groundwater was taken as feed water in present experiments. It was examined that the average yield was enhanced by 113.52 % and 104.68 % by use of SSET and SSETCS. The payback time (PBT) also determined in current work, and it was 237 for SSETCS. At last, it was concluded that the calcium stones are good SHSM to reduce water quantity and accumulate the heat during the daytime.