Article1380631778 - Medugu and Mdatuwong
Article1380631778 - Medugu and Mdatuwong
Article1380631778 - Medugu and Mdatuwong
In developing countries, lack of safe and unreliable drinking water constitutes a major problem. To
alleviate this problem, a solar still was designed and tested in Mubi, Adamawa State of Nigeria. The
radiation from the sun evaporates water inside the solar still at a temperature higher than the ambient.
The principle of operation is the greenhouse effect provided with the glass cover. Energy balances are
made for each element of the still; solar time, direction of beam of radiation, clear sky radiation, optical
properties of the cover, convection outside the still, convection and evaporation inside are accounted.
Theoretical analysis of the heat and mass transfer mechanisms inside this solar still has been
developed. The measured performance was then compared with results obtained by theoretical
analysis. The results clearly show that the instantaneous efficiency increases with the increase of solar
radiation and with the increase of feed water temperature. The distillation efficiency of the still is 99.64%
as compared to the theoretical analysis.
Key words: Solar still, greenhouse effect, ambient, convection, evaporation, feed water.
INTRODUCTION
Portable water may be described as water fit for human
consumption (Medugu and Malgwi, 2006). Supply of
portable water is a major problem in underdeveloped as
well as in some developing countries. Along with food
and air, water is a basic necessity for human beings.
However, a large fraction of the Worlds population, about
1.1 billion people, do not have access to improved or
microbiologically save source of water for drinking and
other essential purposes (WHO, 2002). In addition, there
are many coastal locations where sea water is abundant
but portable water is not available. It is really very fortunate that in terms of high water demand, solar radiation is
also intense. It is therefore beneficial to exploit solar
energy directly by installing solar stills. Two major
advantages favor the use of solar stills clean and free
energy and friendly to environment.
The consumption of save or quality water based on its
source, extent of treatment or consumer handling do not
take into consideration several well documented problems. One of the problems is protected or improved
sources, such as boreholes and treated urban supplies,
706
Sun
q cg
I (t )
q rg
R g I (t )
Glass Cover
Trough
(1 R g ) I (t )
(1 R g )(1 g ) R w I (t )
= R w I ( t )
Distilled Output
Collector
Feed Water
q ew q rw
w, I (t )
b, I (t )
Basin Liner
qb
q cw
Tap
Overflow Port
qw
Stand
q rw
; convection,
q cw
evaporation,
from the water surface to the glass cover after
releasing the latent heat. The condensed water vapor trickles down
the inclined glass cover to an interior collection trough from there it
is collected into the storage container through distilled output
collection port. The thermal energy received by the glass cover,
through radiation, convection and latent heat, is lost to the ambient
by radiation and convection.
Theoretical analysis
In this section a complete mathematical model that describes the
processes in the basin of the solar still is presented. These models
will assist in determining the hourly saturated vapor pressures of
water and glass, the convective and evaporative losses coefficients
from the water surface to the glass, the distillate output and the
instantaneous efficiency of the still.
Tiwari et al. (1989) explained the fraction of solar flux at different
components of the still unit as shown in Figure 1 and
mathematically expressed as:
Solar flux absorbed by the glass cover is
(1)
Rw' = (1 Rg )(1 g ) Rw
Solar flux absorbed by the water mass
(6)
But
.
Q ew = m w L ,
and
( w' + b, ) = ( ) w
Where:
.
kg of
U 'L
mw
Q ew = m w L = ( ) w I (t ) As U L' (Tw Ta ) As
(7)
The heat transfer occurs outside the still, from the glass cover and
the bottom and side insulation. Heat transfer within the still is referred to as internal heat transfer mode which consists of radiation,
convection and evaporation as shown in Figure 1.
The external heat transfer, radiation and convection losses from
q g = q rg + q cg
qg
can be expressed as
(8)
Where;
(3)
q rg = g (Tg4 Ts4 )
(5)
; and
q ew
g' = (1 R g ) g
707
(9)
And
.
(4)
Solar flux lost by the ambient, through water and glass cover, will
be
(10)
708
The rate of heat loss per m2 from the basin liner to ambient can be
written as;
.
q b = hb (Tb Ta )
Where;
q rg = hrg (Tg Ta )
(11)
with
hrg = g
(Tg4 Ts )
(Tg T A )
(14)
q rw = g (Tw4 Tg4 )
(20)
(21)
Where; hrw is the radiative heat transfer coefficient from the water
surface to the glass cover and is given by (Watmuff et al., 1977).
(22)
(15)
Heat is also lost from the water in the basin to the ambient through
the insulation and subsequently by convection and radiation from
the bottom or side surface of the still.
The bottom loss coefficient, Ub can be written as
1
1
1
1
=
+
+
hw k i / Li hcb + hrb
q cw
q cw = hcw (Tw Tg )
(23)
The convective loss coefficient from the water surface to the glass
hcw is given as (Dunkle, 1961)
(16)
Ass
As
q rw
q rw = hrw (Tw Tg )
Us =Ub
(19)
(13)
For the effect of free convection and radiation from the glass cover,
1
1
Ub =
+
hw hb
(12)
hcg
L
1
hb = i +
k i hcb + hrb
The internal heat transfer mode, that is, the heat exchange from the
water surface to the glass cover inside the still unit is governed by
radiation, convection and evaporation. In this case, the water
surface and the glass cover are considered as infinite parallel
h1g
(18)
(17)
Where; Ass is the surface area in contact with water and As is the
area of the basin of the still. Us can be neglected if Ass<<As.
hcw = 0.884 Tw Tg +
( Pw Pg )Tw
268.9 x10 3 Pw
1/ 3
(24)
he
L Mw 1
=
hcw C pa M a PT
(25)
709
Table 1. Overall results of solar still taken over a period of 9 h in Mubi, Nigeria.
I(t)
2
(W/m )
452
475
541
820
1041
1238
1108
830
601
256
T (h)
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
V
(m/s)
0.10
1.05
1.80
2.30
2.80
3.40
3.30
2.60
2.10
1.48
Ta
o
( C)
27.0
28.1
28.8
30.0
31.4
31.6
32.0
31.8
31.2
30.8
Tw
o
( C)
29.2
30.6
34.9
47.1
62.2
69.0
66.0
60.4
53.2
40.3
Tg
o
( C)
27.6
28.5
30.4
35.2
41.6
45.0
43.2
39.8
35.3
34.2
Pw
2
(N/m )
4004.44
4331.43
5487.77
10373.63
21395.54
29029.40
25411.54
19694.32
14010.09
7119.02
Pg
2
(N/m )
3657.58
3849.28
4270.49
5561.03
7832.82
9329.15
8508.45
7129.43
5608.02
5282.78
Where:
PT is the total gas pressure;
Mw is the mass of water vapor;
Ma is mass of air and;
Cpa the specific heat per unit volume at constant pressure of the
mixture.
The rate of heat transfer per unit area from the water surface to the
glass cover can be obtained by substituting the appropriate values
for the parameters in equation (25) (Malik et al., 1982). Thus;
.
q ew = 0.013hcw ( Pw Pg )
qew = 0.0162hcw ( Pw Pg )
(27)
(28)
Where;
Pw Pg
Tw Tg
(Cooper, 1973)
(29)
P (T ) = exp 25 .317
(Tw Tg )
L
mew
2
(kg/m h)
0.0095
0.0133
0.0502
0.2726
1.0796
1.5942
1.3155
0.9106
0.5571
0.0517
(Tw Ta)/I(t)
o
( C/W)
0.0049
0.0053
0.0094
0.0209
0.0296
0.0302
0.0307
0.0345
0.0366
0.0371
1.39
1.85
6.16
22.07
68.85
85.49
78.82
72.83
61.54
20.89
x3600
(Tiwari et al., 1989)
(31)
The thermal efficiency of solar still can be defined as the ratio of the
amount of thermal energy utilized to get a certain amount of distilled
water to the incident solar energy within a given time interval.
Further, the instantaneous efficiency of the still unit
determined as follows:
can be
q hew(Tw Tg )
i =
=
x100
I (t)
I (t)
(32)
m ew = hew
hew
o
( W/m C)
3.9264
4.1935
7.4117
15.2070
34.7934
44.0987
38.3050
29.3452
20.6618
5.6293
(26)
h ew = 16 .273 x10 3 h cw
hcw
2o
(W/m C)
1.1130
1.1224
1.1599
2.3107
3.2475
3.3014
3.1751
2.9565
2.7050
1.7897
5144
T + 273
(30)
Where; P(T) is the saturated vapor pressure. The hourly yield of the
solar still is given as:
(Tw Ta ) / I (t ) is shown
710
80
70
60
Ta C
Ta,Tw,Tg
50
Tw C
40
Tg C
30
20
10
0
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
t(h)
35000
30000
Pw,Pg
25000
20000
PwN/m
2
Pg N/m
15000
10000
5000
0
7:00
8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
t(h)
Figure 3. Hourly variation of saturated partial pressures of water at water and glass temperatures.
50
45
40
35
30
hcw W/m C
25
hew W/m C
20
15
mew kg/m h
2o
o
10
5
0
7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00
t (h)
711
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.0049
0.0053
0.0094
0.0209
0.0296
0.0302
0.0307
0.0345
0.0366
0.0371
(Tw-Ta)/I(t)
(Tw Ta ) / I (t ) .
80
70
60
Tw C
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.1
1.05
1.8
2.3
2.8
3.4
v(m/s)
Figure 6. The impact of the wind velocity on the temperature of water inside the still.
of distillate water corresponds favorably with the theoretical analysis obtained in Figure 4. Their maxima taken
place at 12:00 h, where solar radiation intensity and the
temperature of water inside the still are high, are 1.6 and
2
1.5942 kg/m h for practical and computed values
respectively giving an efficiency of 99.64%.
Conclusion
A solar still was constructed and studied under actual
environmental conditions of Mubi, Adamawa State of
Nigeria. It is an economical means to provide portable
water for remote areas and small communities in arid
712
1.8
1.6
1.4
Distillate
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
7:00
8:00
9:00