Augmentation of diurnal and nocturnal distillate of solar still having wicks in the basin and integrated with solar pond

In present study, the conventional basin type solar still was modified using solar pond and floating wicks in the basin to increase the yield of the still. Solar pond was used to store the energy absorbed during day time and provide that energy to the basin during night to produce nocturnal distillate. For enhancing the evaporation rate of basin water, floating wicks were used in the modified still. To study the effect of solar pond and floating wicks under similar weather and operating conditions, the performance of both the stills were compared. The effects of using solar pond and floating wicks on the yield output of solar still have been investigated. The modified still performed better when basin was incorporated with wicks and couple with solar pond during night. The wicks helped to enhance the diurnal distillate and solar pond enhanced the night productivity. A distillate of 3864 g and 2288.9 g was obtained for day and night respectively for modified still. While distillate of 2533 g and 1474 g was obtained during day and night respectively for conventional still. The gain in diurnal and nocturnal distillate of modified still over the conventional still was found to be 52% and 55% respectively. It can be observed from the study that solar pond contributed in nocturnal distillate and floating wicks contributed in diurnal distillate. In lieu of this, the overall gain productivity of proposed still was found to be 53.5%.