Applied Chemical Engineering

Experimental investigation on Solar desalination system integrated with kanche marbles

Choon kit chan

Faculty of Engineering and Quantity Surveying, INTI International University, Persiaran Perdana BBN, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan 71800, Malaysia

Vina M. Lomte

Department of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Marathwada Mitra Mandal's College of Engineering, Karvenagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411052, India

Naresh G. Jaiswal

Department of Mechanical Engineering, PVG'S College of Engineering, Technology and Management, Pune, Maharashtra 411009, India

Pravin G. Kulkarni

Department of Mechanical Engineering, PVG'S College of Engineering, Technology and Management, Pune, Maharashtra 411009, India

Ami R. Barot

Department of Mechanical Engineering, PVG'S College of Engineering, Technology and Management, Pune, Maharashtra 411009, India

Vijay Chaudhari

Centre for Research Impact and Outcome, Chitkara University, Rajpura- 140417, Punjab, India

Roshan Singh

Centre for Research Impact and Outcome, Chitkara University, Rajpura- 140417, Punjab, India; Centre for Promotion of Research, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun, 24800, Uttarakhand, India

Sujeet Kumar

Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology, 19, Knowledge Park-II, Institutional Area, Greater Noida (UP) -201324, India; Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, 144411, Punjab, India

Kaushik Patel

Department of mechanical Engineering, Government Engineering College Patan, 384265, Gujarat, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/ace.v9i3.6066

Keywords: solar still; glass marbles (kanche); sensible heat storage; distillate yield; cost per litre; process innovation

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Abstract

Water scarcity has been identified as one of the major challenges in the world today, thereby the necessity of developing simple and sustainable desalination technologies. The performance of this Modified Solar Still (MSS) using black-coated glass (kanche) marbles as sensible heat storage medium was experimentally compared with that of Conventional Solar Still (CSS) under climatic conditions of Somnath, Gujarat, India. The two identical, single-slope solar stills were operated in parallel with a basin area of 1 m². The MSS had higher water and glass cover temperatures in the basin throughout the day, which led to higher evaporation and condensation rates. The maximum distillate yield per hour for the MSS was 0.58L whereas the CSS yields 0.49L. Likewise, the amount of cumulative freshwater produced rose from 3.1 L/day in the CSS to 4.0 L/day in the MSS. The highest thermal efficiency of the MSS was 36.5% and for CSS it was 32%. The performance is enhanced due to better absorption and retention of solar energy by the black coated marbles and the MSS is a practical and economical solution for solar desalination applications, the main reason for this is attributed to the solar energy absorption and heat retention properties of kanche marbles.

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