Enhancing the productivity of v-type and roof type single basin solar still with internal modification — a Taguchi method

Solar desalination technologies are an alternative and appealing solution for providing potable water to people in remote and coastal areas. This work presents an experimental and theoretical study of roof-type and v-type solar desalination stills with internal modifications. The Taguchi method reduces the number of experiments conducted physically and gives better results while consuming less time. An experimental investigation of a v-type and roof-type solar still incorporating four internal modification parameters like basin liner design, wick materials, water depth and heat storage materials was carried out to optimize freshwater production. The selected parameter levels to improve the freshwater production in v-type and roof type solar stills have been obtained through an experimental study. Experiments were conducted for nine combinations of parameters suggested by the L9 orthogonal array. As per the L9 orthogonal array, nine combinations of parameters were obtained. The maximum SN ratio of parameter levels was selected to redesign the v-type and roof type basins to achieve a robust design. As per the Taguchi method, the redesigned v-type and roof type solar still designs were developed, giving 125% and 172% more freshwater, respectively compared to conventional v-type and roof type solar stills. When compared to v-type solar still, roof-type still produced more freshwater. Theoretical analysis shows that this roof type produces 45% more freshwater yield than a v-type solar still.