A review on research trends in solar still designs for domestic and industrial applications

Abstract Conventional solar still owns poor efficiency and low distillate output. Many investigators improved the performance of solar still by varying the design of its components. This paper evaluates the effect of several design modifications on the performance of solar still to investigate the most excellent design suitable for industrial and domestic application. From this review, it is found that for single-basin single-slope passive solar still, still integrated with the Fresnel lens with 638% improvement in productivity appears to be a superior design. For single-basin single-slope active solar still, stepped still coupled to solar air heater is the most suitable design with 112% improvement in productivity. For double-basin single-slope solar still, still with reflectors, flat plate collector and the mini solar pond is the finest design with productivity improvement of 127.65%. For a single-basin multiple-slope solar still, hybrid solar still with PV/T collector is the productive design with 370% increase in freshwater yield. Out of all innovative energy-efficient design of solar stills, the most significant improvement in productivity is 676% delivered by tubular design consisting of a semicircular trough filled by a black cloth and coupled to an external reflector. From this investigation, it is found that for domestic application, single-basin single-slope cascade solar still is the most suitable and economical design; however, for industrial application, tubular still with the wick is the most appropriate design.