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Abstract
The increase of population worldwide makes the availability of fresh water an important issue especially for developing countries. Natural distribution of fresh water resources is not proportional to population increase. One very important fresh water supply technique is desalination, but it is high-energy consumption processes. Fortunately, most of the developing countries are characterized by a high intensity of solar radiation. The adoption of solar desalination using the sun is a promising option to reduce the cost of the desalination product. A tightened laboratory scale solar still was proposed, using reduced pressure at which water is evaporated at lower temperatures than vented stills. At the beginning, the system utilizes a pump to create vacuum, which allows the use of low-grade heat source. A theoretical study of such a system was presented in this research. It was operated at sub-atmospheric pressure in Cairo, Egypt. For experimental work, a test rig of this water desalination system was constructed and tested to evaluate the technique. Four tests were carried out at August and November 2010 and at April and June 2011. Numerical results were validated by experimental results to show how accurate is the computer program written in MATLAB code. Finally, both results from the proposed system were compared with results of a conventional solar still operated in Cairo in 2005. The basin type solar still used in this work was equipped with an air-cooled condenser. The system requires simple technology with less number of problems. It can be used anywhere as low maintenance and no skilled workers are needed. The numerical results from the computer program indicated a sensible agreement with experimental results. Experimental results from the modified system under the meteorological conditions of Cairo, Egypt indicated an improvement in overall system efficiency and total daily water productivity by about 10 % and 13.21 % respectively compared with conventional solar desalination techniques.