| MDHJ Senavirathna1*, KDN Weerasinghe1, Mathias Maier2, Harald Rosemann2
1Department of Agric. Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Mapalana, Kamburupitiya
2Std werke Karlsruhe, Dexlander str 72, 76127 Karlsruhe, Germany
Abstrsact
Solar distillation is one of the appropriate methods which could be used to reduce cost of power in the process of water purification. The commonly used single basin solar distillation systems are not efficient in the process of distillation. Therefore, an experiment was carried out to increase the efficiency of the existing single basin solar distillation unit constructed by the NERD center Sri Lanka by incorporating a 2cm thick unsieved river sand layer for heat retention due to its high thermal capacity. It was revealed that, 30% increment of water distillation could be achieved when sand is incorporated to the solar distillation system even though the internal temperatures of the both systems were not significantly different. Average daily production of the solar distillation system constructed by the NERD center was 1557ml/m2/day at Mapalana (6°3'39"N 80°33' 57"E). The average daily production after the modification was 2017.50ml/m2/day at Mapalana. The maximum distillation rate of NERD solar distiller was 2150ml/m2/day and 2780ml/m2/day for the modified solar distiller during the experiment period. The average inner temperatures of NERD and modified solar distillers were 55.880C and 56.540C, respectively when the average ambient temperature was 29.020C. Evaporation of more water from the modified solar distiller was the reason for insignificant temperature differences between two solar distillers.
Key words: Sand, Solar distillation, Purification
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