A Technical Seminar on

WATER PURIFICATION USING

SOLAR STILL

Under the guidance of

Santhosh K.G
Submitted by
Assistant professor Mohamed Shakeeb Ahmed
Mechanical engineering 4MH11ME069
M.I.T Mysore

1
 INTRODUCTION

• A solar still is a simple way

of distilling water.

• It uses solar energy to distill the water.

• It removes impurities such as salt and

other microbiological organisms.

2
 Water Impurities

• Suspended particles.
• Dissolved inorganic salts.
• Dissolved organic compounds.
• Micro-organisms.

• Pyrogens.

3
 Types of purification

• Distillation.
• Vapour compression.
• Reverse osmosis.

4
 Benefits of Distillation

• It produces water of high quality.

• Maintenance is almost negligible.
• Any type of water can be purified into potable water
by means of this process.
• Wastage of water will be minimum.

5
 Types of solar still

• Spherical solar still.

• Hemispherical solar still.
• Pyramid solar still.

6
Spherical solar still

7
Hemispherical solar still

8
Pyramid solar still

9
Working of solar still

10
 Concept for making a good solar
still
• The cover can be either glass or plastic.
• Glass is preferable to plastic because most plastic
degrades in the long term due to ultra violet light
from sunlight.
• The use of the mirror reflector will increase the
temperature of the solar still basin.
• Sufficient Insulations of wool, thermocol, sealants
etc. must be provided inside the basin in order to
prevent loss of heat.

11
 Estimation of water output
 

Q=
A = Aperture area of the still in
E = Efficiency of the still usually taken as 50%
G = Global radiation energy in MJ/(Approx. 18 MJ/)

Estimate: 3.91 liters/ /day

12
 Advantages
• Free of charge sun energy (during sunlight it
eliminates 500 Watt electric consumption per one
hour of sunlight).
• There are no moving parts; it is therefore reliable and
almost maintenance free (cleaning is required
though).
• Water taste is claimed to be better since the device
act as a Solar Water Vaporizer and it doesn’t boil the
water (resembling rain water).
• Neutral pH is claimed (like rainwater), not like the
not neutral pH of steamed distilled water.
13
 Disadvantages

• Low distillate output per unit area.

• Leakage of vapour through joints.
• High maintenance.
• Productivity decreases with time for a variety of
reasons.

14
 Case study
1.

Fig: 12 Array Solar Still System

15
2.

Fig: Flat Plate Solar Still

16
 Conclusion
• It was found from the experimental analysis that
increasing the ambient temperature from 32°C to
47°C will increase the productivity by approximate
12 to 23%.
• It was observed that when the water depth increases
from 0.01m to 0.03m the productivity decreased by
5%.
• Solar still productivity can also increase by use of
reflector by 3%.
• Capital cost can be reduced by using different designs
and new materials for construction of solar stills. 17
THANK YOU

18