Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888

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Journal of Energy Storage

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/est

Performance evaluation of single slope solar still augmented with sand-filled T

cotton bags
Pankaj Dumka, Aman Sharma, Yash Kushwah, Aman Singh Raghav, Dhananjay R. Mishra
⁎

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology, A.B. Road, Guna 473226, Madhya Pradesh, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In this paper, an attempt has been made to compare the performance of conventional solar still (CSS) with the
Desalination CSS augmented with 100 sand-filled cotton bags (called as modified solar still (MSS)). For the purpose, two
Solar still identical single slope solar stills were fabricated. The bags were placed vertically at equidistance in the basin
Sensible energy storage area for the enhancement of sensible energy storage capacity and water surface area (due to capillary action
Wick
within the sandbags). Outdoor experiments were conducted in the month of January and February 2019, at
Sandbag
Raghogarh, Guna (24° 39′N, 77° 19′E), India with 30 kg and 40 kg basin water. It has been observed that the
cumulative distillate yield of MSS for 30 and 40 kg basin water were higher by 28.56 and 30.99% respectively.
The overall efficiency of MSS is enhanced by 31.31 and 28.96% as compared with the CSS for 40 kg and 30 kg
basin water respectively.

1. Introduction
Rapid industrialization and population growth have led to the ser-
ious problem of water stress, as our natural water sources have now
entered an era of scarcity. One of the eco-friendly and cost effective
device for the production of potable water from brackish water is the
solar still. As it only uses solar energy which is a free and continuous
energy source. But, these solar stills have some limitations i.e. low
distillate yield and requirement of large surface area. So to overcome
these limitations, researchers and scientists are working continuously
on different methods to improve its performance [1–6]. Detailed review
on different ways to enhance the distillate yield of a CSS by in-
corporating energy storage material, fins, phase change materials, and
multi-basin have been reported by several researchers [7,8]. A review
on different types of solar stills such as: basin-type, wick-type, stepped-
type, weir-type, semi-circular trough absorber still with baffles, inclined
solar still integrated with other solar still, active inclined solar still, and
inclined solar still integrated with external condenser has been reported
by Kabeel et al. [9].
Sodha et al. [10] have experimentally studied the performance of a
single slope multi-wick solar still. They have reported a maximum cu-
mulative yield of 2.45 kg/m2 during sunny day. On the basis of ex-
perimental results Yeh and Chen [11] have modified the theory of wick-
type solar distillers by considering the effect of climate, design, and
operating conditions. The performance of a CSS augmented with
different size sponge cubes kept in the basin has been experimentally
investigated by Bassam and Himzeh [12]. They have reported an in-
crease of 18 to 273% in the distillate yield when sponge cubes were
used. A transient performance of floating cum tilted-wick type solar still
have been reported by Janarthanan et al. [13]. Velmurugan et al. [14]
have reported the use of fins, pebbles, and sponges inside the CSS.
Velmurugan et al. [14] have reported that the CSS augmented with fins,
and sponges will give 40.2 and 45% enhancement in distillate output as
compared to CSS respectively. An effect of porous fins in the basin of
CSS with black wick material has been studied by Srivastava and
Agrawal [15]. They have reported an increment of 22.2% in the dis-
tillate yield when the depth of basin water decreases from 0.04 to
0.03 m. Harris Samuel et al. [16] have reported an improvement in the
thermal performance and yield of solar still by using the encapsulated
salt heat energy storing material. Alaian et al. [17] have experimentally
studied the performance of a solar still augmented with pin-finned
wicks. They have reported an increment in the efficiency and distillate
yield of pin-finned wicks augmented CSS by 55 and 23% respectively.
Deshmukh and Thombre [18] have studied the performance of a CSS
augmented with sand and servotherm medium oil as sensible energy
storage medium beneath the basin liner. Kabeel et al. [19] have studied
the impact of jute cloth knitted with sand as heat energy storage on the
productivity of a CSS by varying the basin water mass. They have re-
ported the distillate output of 5.5 and 5.9 kg/m2 for the basin water
mass of 20 kg from CSS without and with jute cloth knitting with

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dhananjay.mishra@juet.ac.in (D.R. Mishra).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.100888
Received 19 May 2019; Received in revised form 10 July 2019; Accepted 1 August 2019
2352-152X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Dumka, et al. Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888

Greek letter Greek letter

a measuring instrument accuracy ηi instantaneous thermal efficiency

Ab basin area (m2)
I(t) incident solar radiation on inclined cover surface (W/m2) Abbreviations
L latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
mew distillate output (kg/m2-h) CSS conventional solar still
Ta ambient temperature (°C) FRP fibre reinforced plastic
Tci inner glass cover temperature (°C) GFN grain fineness number
Tsb sandbag temperature (°C) MSS modified solar still
Tv average temperature of moist air (°C) PCM phase change material
Tw temperature of water surface (°C)
u standard Uncertainty

sensible heat storage materials respectively. From the literature it has analyses and reported. It has been observed that the use of sandbags has
been observed that many researchers have used sand as a sensible en- improved the distillate output and efficiency of CSS remarkably.
ergy storage material for enhancement of the productive of solar still.
In this communication, an attempt has been made to enhance the
2. Experimental setup
productivity of CSS by augmenting with the sandbags. Presence of
sandbags within the basin will enhance the surface area and sensible
The aim of this experimental endeavor is to study the performance
heat storage capacity. Porous nature of sand bags leads to the capillary
of sandbags augmented conventional solar still and its comparison with
rise and gives better utilization of stored energy for escalation of surface
the conventional solar still. For this purpose, two identical, 1 m2 basin
evaporation rate. Experimental results obtained from the outdoor ex-
area, single slope conventional solar stills (CSS) were fabricated from
perimentations in the month of January and February 2019 have been
5 mm thick FRP material at JUET, Guna. Whose, higher and lower

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of CSS.

Fig. 2. Schematic of a sandbag.

2
P. Dumka, et al.
Fig. 3. Arrangement of sandbags in basin water tray.
vertical sides are of 0.48 and 0.2 m heights respectively. For better
absorption of solar energy, the inner surfaces of solar stills were painted
black. A 4 mm thick iron transparent glass has been used to cover the
solar still at an angle of 15.6° with the ground surface. Arunkumar et al.
[20] have reported that the bubble wrap insulation can restrict the heat
dissipation from side and bottom remarkably; due to the poor thermal
conductivity of air. So bubble wrap has been used to insulate the stills
from sides and bottom. Fig. 1 shows the schematic arrangement of CSS.
Hundred, 12 cm high and 4 cm internal diameter bags were stitched
of black cotton cloth. These bags were filled with sand upto a height of
11 cm, and on top of sand, to increase the absorptivity of the solar ra-
diations, a thin charcoal layer of 1 cm was spread. The total mass of
sand in all the bags was 20 kg. For this purpose washed silica sand of 40
GFN (Grain Fineness Number) has been used. The purpose of using
these sandbags in the still is two folds: primarily they will enhance the
distillate output by enhancing the surface area of water due to capillary
action and secondarily, they will act as sensible energy holding pockets
in the still. The still containing sandbags is given the name MSS. The
sandbags were equidistantly placed into the MSS basin tray so that no
bag can interfere with other and the floor area can be optimized. The
schematics of a sandbag and sandbags arrangement in the tray are
shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively.
Fig. 4. Schematic representation of MSS.
3
Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888
Five K-type thermocouples (K 7/32-2C-TEF) were deployed in the
CSS for the measurement of atmospheric, inner glass, outer glass, water,
and basin temperatures whereas, seven thermocouples were deployed
in the MSS (Fig. 4). Two extra thermocouples were there to measure the
inner and outer temperatures of sandbags. DTC324A-2 temperature
indicator was used to measure different temperatures. LX-107 solar
power meter has been used to measure incident solar radiation during
the experimentation. Photograph of full experimental setup is shown in
Fig. 5.
In the experimentations it is assumed that the data is distributed
uniformly hence, Type B uncertainties are considered. The standard
uncertainty of this type is evaluated as [21]:
u = a/ 3 (1)
where a is the accuracy of the measuring instrument. Table 1 depicts
the accuracy, range, and standard uncertainty of the measuring in-
struments.
The outdoor experiments were conducted at JUET, Guna (24° 39′N,
77° 19′E), India, in the month of January and February 2019.
Experiments were conducted for two different basin water mass i.e. 30
and 40 kg. Each experimental run is of 24 h time duration. Following
observations were made during the experiments:
P. Dumka, et al. Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888

Fig. 5. Photograph of experimental setup.

Table 1 (m ew × L)
= × 100
(2)
i
Accuracy, range and standard uncertainties of measuring devices. (I (t ) × Aw × 3600)
Instrument Accuracy Range Standard uncertainity where L is evaluated by using the relation [6] and Tv = (Tw + Tci)/2 .
Solar power meter ± 10 W/m2 0-1999 W/m2 5.77 W/m2
Thermocouple ± 0.1 °C −100–500 °C 0.06 °C 3. Observations, results and discussions
Graduated cylinder ± 1 ml 0–250 ml 0.6 ml

Fig. 6 shows the variation of incident solar radiation for the days on

• Atmospheric, basin water, inner glass, outer glass, and sandbags which 30 and 40 kg basin water mass are taken for experimental eva-
luations. For the day with 30 kg basin water, the solar radiation re-
temperatures.
• Intensity of incident solar radiation on inclined glass cover. corded at the start of experiment was 600 W/m2 whereas, for 40 kg it

• Distillate output at an interval of one hour.
The overall efficiency of a solar still is defined as the ratio of thermal
energy required to obtain a specific amount of distillate output to that
of total solar energy as input, and mathematically it is written as [4]:
was 542 W/m2. The maximum incident radiation recorded for 30 and
40 kg basin water are 1179 (at 12:00 h) and 1128 W/m2 (at 13:00 h)
respectively. At the end of the experiments, the solar radiation intensity
recorded was 90 (for 30 kg) and 152 W/m2 (for 40 kg). The average
incident solar radiation intensity recorded for 30 kg basin water was
higher by 22.76% in comparison to the day on which 40 kg basin water
has been examined.

Fig. 6. Variation of solar radiation intensity versus time.

4
P. Dumka, et al.
Fig. 7. Variation of atmospheric temperature as a function of time.
Fig. 7 shows the hourly variation of atmospheric temperature for the
days on which 30 and 40 kg of basin water was examined. It has been
observed that the average atmospheric temperature for 30 kg basin
water was lower, although the solar radiations were higher. This may
be because of wind velocity conditions on that day. The maximum at-
mospheric temperature recorded for 30 and 40 kg basin water were
26.1 and 28.6 °C respectively. Whereas, the minimum atmospheric
temperature recorded was 12.9 and 14.2 °C for 30 and 40 kg basin
water respectively.
The variation of basin water temperature with respect to time in the
CSS and MSS for 30 and 40 kg basin water masses are shown in Fig. 8.
For 30 kg basin water, Tw of CSS leads MSS till 14:00 h and after that
MSS takes its lead and maintain it till the end of experimentation.
Whereas, for 40 kg basin water, the Tw of MSS takes lead over CSS after
one hour i.e. at 15:00 h, this is because of higher heat capacity of 40 kg
basin water mass in comparison to 30 kg on one hand and sensible heat
gain by sandbags on the other hand. As on the day when 30 kg water
Fig. 8. Variation of basin water temperature in MSS and CSS as a function of time.
5
Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888
was examined the incident solar radiations were higher along with the
lower heat capacity of water, so the maximum rise in the Tw (for both
CSS and MSS) occurs for 30 kg basin water in comparison with the
40 kg. Tw for 40 kg basin water (for both CSS and MSS) is remarkable
higher than 30 kg after 14:00 h till the end of experimentation. The
maximum value of Tw for MSS and CSS are 58.9 and 63.4 °C respectively
for 30 kg water, whereas for 40 kg water they are 54.5 and 56.1 °C re-
spectively. Though Tw of MSS leads over the Tw of CSS after the mid of
experiment, but the difference is not very large, this is because of high
capillary rise assisted evaporation rate from sandbags surfaces exposed
above the water surface in MSS.
Fig. 9 shows the variation of inner condensing cover temperature for
MSS and CSS for 30 and 40 kg of water as a function of time. Till
10:00 h, for both 30 and 40 kg of basin water, the Tci for CSS and MSS
are almost the same. But, as the day progress MSS takes a lead over CSS
except for a short span of 4 h where CSS leads MSS, this is the time at
which the incident solar radiations are very high, which results in
P. Dumka, et al.
Fig. 9. Variation of inner condensing temperature in MSS and CSS as a function of time.
Fig. 10. Variation of sandbag temperature in MSS as a function of time.
charging of sandbags. For both the cases i.e. 30 and 40 kg of basin
water, the Tci for MSS lead over CSS from 15:00 and 14:00 h respec-
tively, because of higher condensation rate of vapours on the inner
condensing cover in MSS.
Fig. 10 depicts the variation of sandbags surface temperature as a
function of time for 30 and 40 kg basin water masses. The maximum
value of Tsb recorded for 30 and 40 kg basin water masses are at 15:00 h
viz. 59.9 and 54.8 °C. It has been observed that, after 15:00 h for both
30 and 40 kg basin water the Tsb lags Tw . This is because of the higher
evaporation rate from sandbags in comparison to the free water surface.
The hourly variation of distillate yield obtained from MSS and CSS
for 30 and 40 kg basin water are shown in Fig. 11. For 30 and 40 kg
basin water, the maximum yield recorded form MSS are 10 and 12.18%
higher than CSS respectively. The cumulative yield recorded form MSS
and CSS for 30 and 40 kg basin water are 3.493 & 2.717 and 3.14 &
2.397 liters respectively. An overall improvement of 28.56 and 30.99%
in cumulative distillate yield for 30 and 40 kg basin water has been
observed, because of high evaporation rate and sensible energy storage
6
Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888
due to the sandbags augmentation. Table 2 summarizes the day and
nocturnal cumulative yields form MSS and CSS for 30 and 40 kg basin
water. A remarkable rise in the productivity of MSS due to sandbags is
observed in nocturnal hours. For 30 kg basin water, MSS gives 18.38
and 65.75% higher distillate yield at day and nocturnal hours over CSS
respectively. Whereas, for 40 kg basin water MSS leads CSS by 22.17
and 47.49% at day and nocturnal hours respectively. The increase of
the surface area, energy storage capacity, and capillary rise within
sandbags may be the reasons for this high nocturnal yield. Hence, this
shows that the sandbags can enhance the daily productivity of CSS
substantively.
Fig. 12 shows the overall efficiency of CSS and MSS for 30 and 40 kg
of basin water mass are 22.34, 20.47% and 28.81, 26.88% respectively.
Augmenting the sandbags with the CSS has improved the overall effi-
ciency of still by 31.31% for 40 kg and 28.96% for 30 kg basin water.
The high capillary action assisted evaporation from the sandbags has
resulted in this high efficiency of MSS.
P. Dumka, et al. Journal of Energy Storage 25 (2019) 100888

Fig. 11. Variation of distillate yield from MSS and CSS as a function of time.

(iii) Sandbags have remarkably increased the evaporation rate in the

Table 2 nocturnal hours during the experiments.
Cumulative distillate yield recorded during day and nocturnal hours for 30 and (iv) Augmenting the sandbags with the CSS has improved the overall
40 kg basin water in liters.
efficiency of still by 28.96% and 31.31% for 30 and 40 kg basin
Type of still 30 kg 40 kg water respectively.
(v) Remarkably the amount of water in basin has also affected the
Day Nocturnal Day Nocturnal
output.
CSS 2.133 0.584 1.561 0.836
MSS 2.525 0.968 1.907 1.233 Hence, it may be concluded that the augmentation of sandbags with
the conventional solar sill can boost its distillate yield substantively,
and can make it more efficient and productive.

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Mr. Anoop keshari, Mr. Shobhit Bhardwaj,

Mr. Ashutosh Joshi, Mr. Sahaj Jain and Mr. Ankit Singh for helping us
during the experiments. Authors are also grateful to Prof. P. K. Mishra
for his valuable suggestions during the manuscript revision.

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