Performance Analysis of Solar Stills with Different Absorbing Materials

Water is the fundamental need of humanity. The consumption of water is rising with each day. The major parts of the available water, i.e. 97%, are saline seawater and 2% is ice and glaze. Just 1% of the water is pure drinking water. Therefore in order to satisfy the demand for fresh water, it is important to turn the impurity of salty sea water or brackish water into pure water. The Solar Single Slope Single Basin (SSSB) is not being experimentally investigated. The experimentation was performed during the months of May and June 2020 under Indian climatic conditions. The efficiency of still cotton cloth with marbles and jute cloth with marbles is 50.00 per cent and 46.15 per cent respectively, higher than average.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF SOLAR STILL BY USING REFLECTORS-JUTE CLOTH-IMPROVED GLASS ANGLE

This paper is aimed to improve the productivity of an existing conventional single slope solar still with modifications. In this study, the conventional solar still is modified by using reflectors, jute cloth and improved glass angle. The modified still productivity and performance are investigated experimentally and compared to that of conventional solar still. The results demonstrated that solar still performance is improved with the 10o glass angle due to better water flow properties and higher solar radiation fall on the still. The results reveal that, with all combined modifications, the water productivity and efficiency of modified solar still increase by 72.18% and 41.51% respectively more than the conventional one. This implies that modified solar still could be adopted for higher water productivity at a lower additional cost.

GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF BANANA, BURITI PALM, JUTE AND COIR FIBRES FOR USE AS BIOGEOTEXTILES FOR EROSION CONTROL

Geochemical analysis of selected plant fibres used as geotextiles for erosion control was conducted to evaluate their geochemical composition and to determine the elements that could potentially be nutrients for plants or cause heavy metal contamination in soils. Analysis of the samples was performed using X-ray Diffraction and X-ray Fluorescence spectrometry. Results revealed that potassium concentrations varied from 3.63% in jute-mat (India)-50.73% in banana-leaf (São Romão, Brazil), with a mean of 27.17%. Similarly, calcium concentrations varied from 0.09% in banana-leaf (São Romão) –37.0% in banana-leaf/stem (Oleo, Brazil). Iron concentrations varied from 0.15% in banana-leaf/stem samples (Oleo) –4.47% in jute-cloth (India). Since banana-leaf/stem had the highest concentration of macro-nutrients, it is therefore proposed that banana-leaf has the highest potential for adding nutrients to the soil system when biodegraded. In addition, heavy metal analysis of the samples revealed that none of the fibres have high concentrations that may contaminate the soil upon decomposition.