Most of the desalination systems are energy intensive, which consume high grade energy like gas, electricity, oil and fossil fuels These processes lead to carbon footprints, which causes depletion of ozone layer as well as health hazards on mankind It is also lead to global warming which is the burning topic and becomes threat to life sustainability The potential of harnessing solar energy is most efficient and effective for heat to heat conversion The thermal desalination is a low temperature application processes with one time investment for life time water production up to 10 to 15 years In this paper, various solar thermal desalination methods such as direct and indirect methods have been discussed The indirect methods are preferable for medium and large scale desalination systems, whereas the direct methods employing the solar stills are more suitable for small scale systems The performance of the low cost solar stills can be improved with simple modification by using various locally available materials These low cost stills can be easily and economically fabricated for meeting daily need of the fresh drinking water These low cost solar stills are sufficient for the small households and communities living in islands, coastal areas It can also be uses for distillation of brackish water for the population residing near river banks Such a system also suitable for the fluoride affected area to remove fluoride from the water The low cost solar stills are sufficient for removal of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, coliform, virus and bacteria

Water desalination system using solar heat: A review

Simple multiple wick solar still: Analysis and performance

Reasonable amounts of fresh water can be produced via inexpensive and sturdy solar stills in places that are exposed to solar radiation and have a brackish water. This work intends to analyze the many studies on factors that affect the performance of solar stills. The results showed that the distillation productivity of solar stills are significantly influenced by ambient conditions (e.g., ambient temperature, insolation, wind velocity, dust and cloud cover), operating conditions (e.g., depth of water, various dyes, salt concentration and inlet temperature of water), and design conditions (e.g., different passive/active designs of solar stills, slope of the cover, materials selection, storing materials, reflectors, insulation, gap distance and sun tracking system). It was also determined that the performance of solar stills was improved through the increase in solar radiation, ambient air temperature, wind speed, and water absorptivity. This also rings through with the decrease in water depth, thickness of cover, gap distance between water surface and condensing cover. It was also determined that both internal and external reflectors are capable of increasing the amount of absorbed solar radiation on the basin liner. The potential output of a basin type still can potentially increase to almost 70–100%. On top of this, the utilization of a sun tracking system was determined to be way more effective in improving the performance of solar still. This translate to the fact that solar stills being able to produce potable water at a very economical cost. Due to the existence of different methods of cost estimation, it is not possible to determine a universal, comparable price per technology; the cost per liter of distilled water obtained from the basin type solar still is ranged from 0.035 to 0.074$/liter. This study proved the fact that distillation productivity of solar still is heavily influenced by climatic, operational, and design parameters. Its output can be further improved via operational and design conditions, as climatic conditions are beyond our control.

Factors affecting basin type solar still productivity: A detailed review

Digital simulation of transient solar still processes

Effect of climatic, operational and design parameters on the year round performance of single-sloped and double-sloped solar still under Indian arid zone conditions

R.N. Morse

Papers

A rational basis for the engineering development of a solar still