Hayek and Badran (2003) studied the productivity of fresh water by distillation using two different designs of stills:

first, asymmetrical greenhouse type (ASGHT) with mirrors to reflect solar radiation incident on them into the basin, and the second symmetrical greenhouse type (SGHT) as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. They designed both the type of solar still with 1 m2 basin area made of 1.5 mm galvanized stainless steel sheets and covered with 4 mm transparent glass. The bases of stills were blackened on their interior surface for maximum absorption of solar radiation. The bottom and the sides of the still were insulated from outside. The solar still glass covers were tilted at an angle of 35 and they maintained depth of water in the basin at 1.5-5 cm. They performed the temperature evaluation on both stills the result is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. It was noticed by them that the asymmetrical still operated at a higher temperature than the symmetrical green house type due to presence of mirror. The distillate productivity of both asymmetric and symmetric stills are presented in Figs. 6 and 7 for different water depths. The production rate increased with the decrease in water depth because of the increase of the solar radiation absorbed by the bases. They conclude that through the water depth is not a critical parameter, it should be as small as possible. Figure 8 shows the effect of black dye on the performance, which has been attributed to the increased absorbency of the solar energy by the water itself. The overall efficiency for the asymmetrical greenhouse type still is reported to be nearly 11% higher (56% versus 45%) than that of the symmetrical greenhouse type still, while the production rate increased by 20%.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the asymmetrical greenhouse type solar still (ASGHT) (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the symmetrical greenhouse type solar still (SGHT) (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 3. Hourly variation of temperatures for the asymmetric greenhouse type solar still (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 4. Hourly variation of temperatures for the symmetric greenhouse type solar still (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 5a. Fresh water accumulated and the solar radition intensity (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 5b. Fresh water accumulated for 6 days (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 6. The effect of water depth of the productivity of fresh water for the asymmetrical greenhouse type solar still (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 7. The effect of water depth of the productivity of fresh water for the symmetrical greenhouse type solar still (Hayek and Badran (2003)).

Fig. 8. The effect of dye on the production rate (Hayek and Badran (2003)).