Experimental Study on Thermo, Water Quality and Economic Analysis of Hemispherical Solar Still Using Different Basin Materials with and without Internal Reflector

The present work deals with the experimental investigation of Hemispherical Solar Still (HSS) using different basin materials with and without Internal Reflector (IR). Three solar stills such us HSS with Steel Basin (HSS-SB), HSS with Zinc Basin (HSS-ZB), and HSS with Copper Basin (HSS-CB) were fabricated. Experiments were conducted with and without IR. It was found that the productivity of the HSS-CB (4.99 kg/m²/day) was better than HSS-ZB (4.26 kg/m²/day) and both of them were better than HSS-SB (3.64 kg/m²/day). Also, it was found that the productivity of the HSS-CB&IR (5.67 kg/m²/day) was better than HSS-ZB&IR (5.04 kg/m²/day), and both of them were better than the HSS-SB&IR (4.28 kg/m²/day). The results revealed that the use of IR improves the yield of HSS from 12 to 15.6%. Also, the thermal and exergy efficiency of the HSS was improved by 14.4 to 20% and 21.1 to 25.4% using IR than without IR. Furthermore, a recovery period and water quality analysis have been carried out. The recovery period of HSS-SB, HSS-ZB, HSS-CB, HSS-SB&IR, HSS-ZB&IR and HSS-CB&IR are 43, 38, 33, 36, 32 and 29 days, respectively.