Development of characteristic equations of conical solar still by incorporating N identical concentrator collectors with/without photovoltaic panel: A comparative investigation

• Published in: Desalination 2024-08, Vol.582, p.117621, Article 117621
• Main Authors: Kumar, Nandan, Purnachandrakumar, Danduprolu, Saxena, Abhishek, Tiwari, Sumit, Singh, Desh Bandhu, Sinhmar, Harender
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characteristic equation; Compound parabolic concentric collector; Conical solar still; Performance enhancement; Thermal modelling
• ISSN: 0011-9164; 1873-4464
• DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2024.117621

This paper focuses on the development of characteristic equations and performance analysis of a conical solar still (CSS) connected to N identical compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) collectors, with or without photovoltaic thermal (PVT) integration. The objective is to achieve sustainable solar distillation in line with the United Nations' sustainability goals. The thermal model is developed by formulating energy balance equations for each part followed by its experimental validation considering N=0and1. A fair agreement between analytical and experimental results is observed having correlation coefficients as 0.996, 0.993, 0.992, and 0.97, 0.98, 0.99 for water temperature, yield, and glass temperature for N = 0 and 1, respectively. The study considers three cases: CSS integrated with N identical partially covered PVTCPCs (case (i)), CSS integrated with N identical fully covered PVTCPCs (case (ii)), and CSS integrated with N identical CPCs (case (iii)). The performance of these cases is compared using climate conditions in New Delhi on a typical day in June. The findings indicate that the mean value of instantaneous efficiency for case (i) is higher by 67.75 % than case (ii), however lower by 22.22 % than case (iii). The study also investigates the influence of variations in mass-flow rate and N on the output of the active CSS. •Characteristic equation for conical active solar still has been developed.•The developed model has been validated with experimental data.•The effect of input parameters on the output of the proposed system has been studied.•Active conical solar stills have been compared based on characteristic curves.