ENHANCEMENT OF SOLAR STILL DISTILLATION BY EXTERNAL LENS CONCENTRATOR COLLECTOR

In many parts of the world, fresh water is unavailable to people. The worldwide rapid growth in industry has greatly increased the demand for fresh water. Early advancements in providing such solutions have come up with desalination plants to convert sea water into drinking water through distillation system. However, the operational and maintenance costs are high and energy demanding which is a practical option only in rich countries. Solar distillation is an expanding alternative to desalination that is distilling water using solar energy. Solar distillation is environmentally safe and uses solar radiation to evaporate saline water into potable water. This project aims to develop a solar desalination device that will produce fresh water using direct solar energy and to enhance the production of fresh water trough solar distillation by using external energy concentrator using lens under local condition. The solar still was operated in two modes of operation; basic solar still alone and basic solar still with external energy concentrator using lens. The experiment was taken in the month of July start on 9am to 5pm. The condensing tank efficiency increased 4% by using the enhancement of external concentration collector.