Experimental investigation on the effective condenser glass area of solar still hybrid with photovoltaic cells

Abstract

Solar desalination is a broad research field in the production of freshwater. The efficiency of the natural conversion solar desalination system is the only limitation to becoming its commercialization. It needs 1 m2 area for getting approximately 4.5 L of fresh water/day. In active methods 1 m2 area of solar still produce yield up to 10 L/day. In this study a new technology of fixing the photovoltaic cell (PV cells) in the natural passive solar still condenser glass to harvest both freshwater as well as electrical power generation is proposed. The experiments were carried out with conventional solar still of a glass surface area of 0.5 m2, still with an effective glass surface area of 0.3812 m2 and 36 PV cells taken up area of 0.1188 m2, and still with effective glass surface area of 0.3020 m2 and 60 PV cells taken up area of 0.198 m2. The study found that conventional solar still produced 2140 mL/day of yield, still with 36 PV cells produced 1380 mL/day of yield and 98 W of electrical power and still with 60 PV cells produced 840 mL/day of yield and 165 W of electrical power. This hybrid system, solar still with PV cells, produce both fresh water and electrical power. The fresh water yield and electrical power generation depends on the effective area of the solar still glass surface area and area occupied by PV cells attached to the solar still glass cover.