Abstract
In this work, a novel single basin solar still namely trays solar still (TSS) has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Two solar stills have been fabricated, the first one is conventional solar still (CSS) and the second one is TSS. TSS is a single basin solar still modified by adding trays on its internal sides. This modification obtained a large increase in the evaporative surface area and the exposed area to solar radiation. The water depth over the trays is investigated using different values such as 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 cm. Additionally, internal and external mirrors have been used with TSS to increase the solar energy input. The results showed that TSS without reflectors has about 1.5 times of CSS daily productivity at 1 and 0.5 cm basin water level and trays height, respectively. While, TSS with internal mirrors (TSSIM) showed a productivity rise of 58% over that of CSS. Furthermore, employing external bottom (TSSIBM) and top mirrors (TSSITM) improved the productivity of TSSIM by 84 and 75%, respectively when compared with CSS productivity. Also, using both external bottom and top mirrors (TSSIBTM) with TSSIM showed 95% higher productivity than that of CSS. The thermal efficiency of CSS, TSS, TSSIM, TSSIBM and TSSIBTM was 34, 41, 42, 44 and 50%, respectively at 1 cm basin water depth and 0.5 cm trays height.