An Experimental Study of Impact of Inclined Hollow Plate Containing Honey-Bee Wax as an Absorber Surface in a Solar Still

EasyChair Preprint 3964

Abstract

In dry-lands across the world, more than two million people are facing difficulty accessing hygienic potable water. The poor people in the remote location of these areas cause a lot of worries to govern bodies to provide drinking water. It is difficult from an economic point to build and operate a water treatment plant, due to less requirement of water as the population in these areas is sparse. In such a situation, a solar desalination device can be cost-effective, to produce distilled from brackish groundwater. The thermal efficiency of conventional solar stills is very low along with less productivity. This experimental work is an attempt to increase the efficiency and productivity of solar still. The increased productivity will make solar distillation economically feasible for poor people. A naturally available phase change material like honey-bee wax has been packed inside a hollow aluminum plate and used as an absorber surface within a solar still. The wax maintains the temperature within 60oC and stores the excess heat for utilization after sunshine hours. The experimental study was done by comparing it with a conventional still under the same operating conditions. The still with inclined absorber surface shows a 45% increase in productivity. This is attributed due to extended hours of working of solar still beyond sunshine hours because of latent heat storage and the active model of water flow due to inclined absorber surface.

Keyphrases: Desalination, Honey-Bee wax, Inclined Still, Latent heat storage, Phase change material, Solar still

@booklet{EasyChair:3964,
  author    = {Ramanathan Venkatachalam and Kanimozhi Balakrishnan and Virendra Bhojwani},
  title     = {An Experimental Study of Impact of Inclined Hollow Plate Containing Honey-Bee Wax as an Absorber Surface in a Solar Still},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 3964},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2020}}