Experimental Investigation and Parameter Analysis of Solar Still with the Different Wick Materials

This paper aims to produce freshwater from saline water with the help of solar still. Different solar wick materials still absorb the sunlight and convert the heat energy, such as black sheer mesh fabric, light black cotton fabric, light jute fabric, black velvet fabric, and 4 mm thick sponge sheet. The wick materials sheets were wholly immersed in the saline water covering the total still basin area. The net basin horizontal active area of the solar still is 0.48 m², and the glass cover’s tilted angle was fixed at 36º. From this arrangement, it has been found that by the use of various wick materials, the productivity rate differs from each other, and among these wick materials, light black cotton is the most effective wick material for solar still productivity increment. The pH value measures the final quality of the freshwater.