Experimental Investigation of A Glass Partitioned Solar Still

The population of the world increases rapidly and this causes an increase in the demand for potable water accordingly. It is possible to desalinate brackish and seawater by using solar energy. In North Cyprus, solar radiation is high. Therefore desalination techniques would be a reliable option in order to extract fresh water from brackish water. In this study, a single slope improved conventional solar still distillation system and simple single slope solar still are studied and compared theoretically and experimentally in Mechanical Engineering Department at EMU Campus area.The modified solar still consists of five different sizes of glasses and the inside of the still was painted in black colour. The solar stills were constructed 0.98m0.98m base area. Solar irradiance, inlet and outlet air temperatures and water temperatures of 2 different types of solar stills, 5 different sizes of glasses’ temperatures and the potable water production was measured between 09:00 a.m to 16:00 p.m hourly. Experimental results showed that, the maximum amount of water produced by the improved solar still system was 3.51 L/day.m2. The reference system’s water production was 2.1 L/day.m2. The experiment was conducted for a period of three weeks (29 July 2014 – 19 August 2014 ). The present study showed that, with the use of 5 different sizes of glass panes in the solar still the amount of water production increased by 67% compared to the conventional still due to the improved air circulation within the modified still. Keywords: Solar Desalination, Solar Still, Modified Solar Still.