Thermal analysis of single slope single basin solar still with fin wick material in the basin

A single slope single basin type solar still has been designed and fabricated. The system has been tested with dripping of saline water on cotton fin wick in the basin liner. Energy balance equations for the moist air inside the still, glass cover and fin cotton wick have been written and solved to get the analytical expressions for the instantaneous efficiency of the proposed system. The numerical calculations have been done and validated with the experimental observations for a few typical days during October 2011 and September 2012.