The Effect of Coupling Flat Plate Collectors with Basin-Solar Stills

Abstract

Two identical single - effect of single basin solar stills were designed, fabricated, tested and evaluated. One was operated alone while the other was coupled to a flat plate solar collector. Both were installed at some site in Tripoli, Libya at 32" 48' 51' N and 13’’26' I7' E. They were south oriented with a tilt angle of 23“. Measurements of various parameters were taken in August 2009 at each hour for several days under different operating conditions. Two operational modes were considered. The tests were conducted using seawater of 35,000 ppm. The depth of water in the basin was kept fixed at 60 mm. Fresh water production of the coupled still was measured to be 6.6 L/day which is higher than that of the single still by 55.84%. The maximum daily efficiency was calculated to be 14.48% for the single still while it was only 24.18% for the coupled still. The still thermal performance was found to have a complex function of geometry, construction, operational conditions, site characteristics and layout details.