Productivity enhancement of the solar still by using water cooled finned condensing pipe

An innovative solar desalination system was designed, constructed, and tested to produce more freshwater than a conventional solar still system. The new system consists of a basin type solar still and an external condenser. The condenser itself contains finned condensing pipes and a reservoir for the cooling water. The effects number of the fins, volume of cooling water, and flow rate in the condenser on the distilled output of the proposed solar desalination system were studied. As compared to the conventional basin type solar still system, the proposed system significantly produced more freshwater when cooling water volume, cooling water flow rate, numbers of fins in the condenser were increased. Furthermore, the number of fins exerted the most significant effect on freshwater productivity. The maximum daily freshwater produced was 12,350 mL when 250 L cooling water, 400 L/h flow rate, and 80 fins on the outer surface of the condensing pipe were used, which is about 300% more than the productivity of the conventional solar still. To use this solar desalination system efficiently, it was concluded that the optimum rate of cooling water must be about 50 L/h. Moreover, the remaining water volume in the condenser must be about 79 L.