Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

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Desalination
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Enhancing the stepped solar still performance using internal reectors

Z.M. Omara a, A.E. Kabeel b,, M.M. Younes a
a
b

Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt

Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

H I G H L I G H T S
The performance of a modied stepped solar still with mirrors added was investigated.
The productivity of modied stepped solar still with reectors is higher than that for conventional still by 75%.
The daily efciency of modied stepped with internal reectors and conventional solar stills is approximately 56% and 34% respectively.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 October 2012
Received in revised form 18 December 2012
Accepted 5 January 2013
Available online 1 February 2013
Keywords:
Solar still
Solar desalination
Solar distillation
Stepped solar still
Reectors

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents a modication of stepped solar still through internal reectors. A comparison study between modied stepped solar still with trays (5 mm depth 120 mm width) and conventional solar still
was carried out to evaluate the developed desalination system performance under the same climate conditions. The effect of installing a reecting mirror on the vertical sides of the steps of stepped still on the distillate
productivity was investigated. An experimental as well as theoretical investigation is carried out. The results
indicate that, during experimentation the productivity of the modied stepped solar still with and without
internal reectors is higher than that for conventional still approximately by 75% and 57%, respectively. Also
the daily efciency for modied stepped still with and without internal reectors and conventional solar
still is approximately 56%, 53% and 34%, respectively.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Although, more than two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water,
shortage of potable water is a serious issue that many countries suffer
from. Furthermore, the worldwide rapid growth of industry and
population has resulted in a large boom in demand for fresh water.
The solar still, in many respects, is an ideal source of fresh water for
both drinking and agriculture; it is one of the most important and
technically viable applications of solar energy. The production capacity of a simple type still is in the range of 25 l/m 2/day [1]. This makes
the system highly uneconomical. In solar desalination process, the
productivity of the solar still is very less compared to other conventional desalination systems.
The various factors affecting the productivity of solar still [1] are
solar intensity, wind velocity, ambient temperature, waterglass temperature difference, free surface area of water, absorber plate area,
temperature of inlet water, glass angle and depth of water. The solar
intensity, wind velocity, ambient temperature cannot be controlled
as they are metrological parameters, whereas the remaining parameters can be varied to enhance the productivity of the solar stills.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 1001543587; fax: +20 403453860.

E-mail address: Kabeel6@yahoo.com (A.E. Kabeel).
0011-9164/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2013.01.007

The depth of water in the solar still inversely affects the productivity of the solar still. Maintaining the minimum depth in the solar still
is very difcult. For maintaining minimum depth, wicks [2,3], plastic
water purier [4] and stepped solar still [59] were used. Investigations indicated that a reduction of the brine depth in the still improves the productivity, mainly due to the higher basin temperature.
Velmurugan et al. [5] used a stepped still and a settling tank to
desalinate the textile efuent. A maximum increase in productivity
of 98% is reported in stepped solar still when n, sponge and pebbles
are used in this basin. In addition Velmurugan et al. [6,7] studied the
augmentation of saline streams in solar stills integrated with a mini
solar pond. When industrial efuent was used as feed for n type
single basin solar still and stepped solar still a maximum productivity
of 100% was obtained when the n type solar still was integrated with
pebble and sponge. When a mini solar pond, stepped solar still and
a single basin solar still are put in series, a maximum productivity
of 80% is obtained, when ns and sponges are used in both the solar
stills. When a mini solar pond, stepped solar still and wick type
solar still are connected in series, it is found that a maximum productivity of 78% occurred, when ns and sponges are used in the stepped
solar still. A weir-type cascade solar still, integrated with latent
heat thermal energy storage system, was designed with the view of
enhancing productivity [8]. A heat storage system with 18 kg mass
(2 cm thickness) of parafn wax beneath the absorber plate was

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Z.M. Omara et al. / Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

used, to keep the operating temperature of the still high enough to

produce distillated water during the lack of sunshine, particularly
at night.
Effect of varying both depth and width of trays on the performance
of the stepped still was studied theoretically and experimentally by
Kabeel et al. [9]. The results show that, maximum productivity of
stepped still is achieved at a tray depth H = 5 mm and tray width
W = 120 mm, which is about 57.3% higher than that of the conventional still. For further augmentation of the yield a wick on the vertical
sides was added to the stepped still. It is found that the augmentation
of the daily productivity of the stepped still by using wick on the vertical sides approximately from 3% to 5%. El-Zahaby et al. [10] investigated experimentally a new design of a stepped solar desalination
system with ashing chamber. The main objective of the investigation
was to study the performance of step-wise water basin coupled with a
spray water system by augmenting desalination productivity through
the use of two air heaters.
Reectors are used to maximize the yield of the solar still. Monowe
et al. [11] designed a portable thermalelectrical solar still with an
external reecting booster and an outside condenser results show
that the efciency of such still could be up to 77% if the preheated saline water is used for domestic purposes, and it could be up to 85% if
preheated saline water is used to operate the still during night times
and to recharge the still by the next batch of preheated water. Tanaka
[12] constructed a basin type solar still with internal and external
reectors. The daily productivity of a basin type still was increased
by about 70% to 100% with a very simple modication using internal
and external reectors. Also Tanaka [13,14] analyzed theoretically a
basin type solar still and a tilted wick solar still with at plate external
bottom reector. Salah Abdallah et al. [15] improved the single slope
solar still performance through increasing the production rate of
distilled water. Design modications were introduced to the conventional solar still, involving the installation of reecting mirrors on
all interior sides, replacing the at basin by a step-wise basin, and by
coupling the conventional solar still with a sun tracking system. The
inclusion of internal mirrors improved the system thermal performance up to 30%.
Kostic and Pavlovic [16] analyzed a solar collector with top and
bottom reectors and calculated the optimum yearly tilt angle of
both of the reectors for a xed collector tilt angle of 45 (43N

Latitude). Nikolic and Lukic [17] carried out a mathematical model

for determining the optimum reector position of the double exposure at-plate solar collector in the condition where the lower
absorber surface is fully irradiated. Additionally, the model was simulated to determine the optimal reector positions for the optimum
collector yearly position.
The main objective of this work is to investigate the performance
of the stepped solar still integrated with reectors at the vertical
sides of the steps.
2. Experimental setup
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental setup. It consists of a saline water tank, a conventional still (single basin solar still)
and a stepped solar still. The description of experimental setup is the
same as that of Ref. [9] with slight modication for stepped still. The
mirrors were added on the vertical sides of the steps as internal reectors of stepped still. A photo of the stepped solar still with an internal
mirror is shown in Fig. 2. In addition, Fig. 3 shows the trays and mirrors
on the steps of the modied stepped still. The basin area of the conventional still is 1 m 2 (0.5 m 2.0 m). The absorber plate of stepped
still is made up of 5 steps (each of size 0.1 m 2 m) with tray depth
of 5 mm and width of 120 mm, so that the absorber and water area
are equal to 1.16 m 2. The error analyses and experimental procedure
is the same as that of Ref. [9]. The depth of the saline water in the
solar stills is kept constant during the experiment at 5 mm. Experiments were carried out from 9 am to sunset during the period of
June to August 2012 at the Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt (Latitude 31.07N and longitude 30.57E).
3. Theoretical analysis
The analytical results are obtained by solving of the energy balance
equations for the absorber plate, saline water and glass cover of the
solar still. The saline water temperature, basin plate temperature
and glass cover temperature can be evaluated at every instant. The
following assumptions were taken into consideration:
1. Steady state conditions throughout the solar still.
2. The solar still is vapor leakage proof.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental set up.

Z.M. Omara et al. / Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

69

Where w is the tray width and ls is the step length, solar altitude
angle, solar azimuth angle and s tilt angle of the glass cover.
Energy balance for the basin plate (stepped still with mirrors),


It g Ab b It g int b  wls tans cos= tan  4
mb cpb dT b =dt Q c;bw Q loss :

Energy balance for the saline water of stepped still with mirrors,


I t g Aw w It g int w  wls tans cos= tan  4 Q c;bw
mw cpw dT w =dt Q c;wg Q r;wg Q e;wg Q fw :

The expressions for Qc,b w, Qloss, Qc,w g, Qr,w g, Qe,w g, Qr,g sky,
Qfw, Qc,g sky are taken from [5,9].
The hourly yield is given by the following equation,
Fig. 2. A photo of the modied stepped solar still.

3. Make up water is at atmospheric temperature and takes heat from

basin.
4. Heat loss from the side of the still is negligible.
Energy balance for the basin plate [9],
It g Ab b mb cpb dT b =dt Q c;bw Q loss :



 
_ ew he;wg T w T g  3600= hfg :
m

Efciency, d, is obtained by the summation of the hourly conden_ ew , multiplied by the latent heat hfg, hence the result
sate production m
is divided by the daily average solar radiation I(t) over the whole area
A of the device:

Energy balance for the saline water,

It g Aw w Q c;bw mw cpw dT w =dt Q c;wg Q r;wg Q e;wg Q fw :

_ ew  hfg
m
A  I t

2
Energy balance for the glass cover,
It Ag g Q c;wg Q r;wg Q e;wg


mg cpg dT g =dt Q r;gsky Q c;gsky :

For the stepped still with mirrors the solar radiation reected by
the mirrors per step and absorbed by the basin (trays) and saline
water can be determined [13] as the product of the direct solar irradiance, the shadow area of the vertical mirror, transmittance of the
glass cover, reectance of the mirror, int, and absorptance of the
basin liner or of saline water, and this may be expressed as:
Q int;b It g int b  wls tans cos= tan

Q int;w It g int w  wls tans cos= tan:

The theoretical analysis are investigated and veried through the

experimental results. The differential equations are solved using
the Engineering Equation Solver (EES). At the rst iteration, water
temperature, glass temperature and plate temperature are taken as
ambient temperature and the increase in basin temperature (dTb), saline water temperature (dTw) and glass temperature (dTg) are computed by solving Eqs. (1), (2) and (3) respectively for stepped still
without internal mirrors. For evaluating, the above said temperatures
in the simulation, the experimentally measured values of solar radiation, wind velocity and ambient temperature of the corresponding
day and hour are used. This iteration is performed for total duration
from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. of a day. The Design, physical and operating parameters used in theoretical calculation are shown in Table 1. The
physical parameters used are taken as that of [5]. For the next time
step, the parameter is redened as, Tw = Tw + dTw, Tg = Tg + dTg and
Tb = Tb + dTb. Finally the hourly yield and efciency are calculated
from Eqs. (8) and (9), respectively. For the conventional still the
same equations and calculations are conducted as that of the stepped
still but the value of the heat loss coefcient from basin to ambient
was taken as that of [9]. For stepped still with internal mirrors the
same calculations are conducted as stepped still without except
Eqs. (1) and (2) replaced by Eqs. (6) and (7). The ow chart of computer program is shown in Fig. 4.

Table 1
Design, physical and operating parameters used in theoretical calculation.

Fig. 3. Trays and mirrors on the steps of the modied stepped still.

Item

Mass
(kg)

Area
(m2)

Specic heat
(J/kg K)

Absorptivity

Emissivity

Saline water
Glass cover
Absorber plate

5.9
9
14.5

1.16
1.12
1.16

4190
840
460

0.05
0.05
0.95

0.96
0.85

Latent heat (hfg) = 2,335,000 J/kg.

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Z.M. Omara et al. / Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

a) Stepped still without mirrors

Basin water temperature

Glass temperature

Conventional still

Conventional still

Stepped still

Stepped still

100

1200

9/8/2012

1000

Temperature,C

80
800
70
60

600

50
400
40

Solar radiation, W/m2

Solar
radiation

90

200
30

Ambient temperature

20
8

0
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time, h

b) Stepped still with mirrors

100

1200
Solar
radiation

90

5/8/2012
80

Fig. 5 shows the variation of solar radiation, atmospheric temperature, basin water temperature and glass temperature of tested stills.
It is observed that the hourly solar radiation was high at noon. Also
the power gained was varied from minimum values in the morning
(i.e. low ambient temperature and low solar radiation) to the maximum at noon where the solar radiation and the ambient temperature
are high, as expected.
In addition, Fig. 5 shows narrower temperature changes during
the experimental hours for the solar stills, which means that the maximum temperature was maintained for several hours between 11 am
up to 3 p.m. due to the increase in the amount of energy absorbed by
the solar still system. Also, during the period from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
the temperature of the entire system continuously increased due to
the exposure to solar radiation. However, in the afternoon, the temperature started to decrease slowly due to the trapped IR radiation
as the solar still acts as a greenhouse. From Fig. 5a, it can be observed
that the basin water temperature was about 40 C in the morning and
increased to the maximum value as 76 C at mid-noon. The solar still
performance was improved at mid-noon, and this may be attributed
to the increase of solar radiation which leads to higher ambient temperature and higher solar still temperature.
Fig. 5a shows that the glass temperature and basin water temperature of modied stepped solar still without mirrors are higher than
that of conventional still by about 03.5 C and 03 C, respectively.
This may be referred to three reasons: (1) a smaller air volume
trapped inside the stepped still chamber than in the conventional
still and therefore heating up the trapped air will be much faster,
(2) the step-wise basin provides higher heat and mass transfer surface area (1.16 m 2) than the at basin (1 m 2), thus consequently
leads to increase in the basin water temperature of stepped solar
still and (3) the amount of water in the stepped still is higher than
that of conventional still at the same depth (5 mm), due to increase
in the base area of stepped still at tray width W = 120 mm.

Temperature,C

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Effect of solar radiation on the performance of the solar still

1000

800
70
60

600

50
400
40

Solar radiation, W/m2

Fig. 4. Flow chart of computer program.

200
30

Ambient temperature

20
8

0
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time, h
Fig. 5. The hourly temperatures variations and solar radiation for the modied stepped
and the conventional solar still.

While, from Fig. 5b, it can be indicated that the glass temperature
and basin water temperature of modied stepped solar still with
mirrors are higher than that of conventional still by about 04.5 C
and 04.5 C. This is because adding mirrors on the inside walls
of the stepped still (the vertical sides of the steps) minimizes the
amount of energy lost. In addition, the reectors reect a fraction
of the radiation onto the water surface, thus consequently increase
the water and glass temperatures of the stepped solar still. So, the
evaporation and condensation rates in stepped solar stills were
higher than that of conventional still.
4.2. Water productivity
Comparisons between the hourly variation of fresh water productivity per unit area for stepped and conventional solar stills are illustrated in Fig. 6. From the gure it is found that there was an increase
in the water productivity during early hours of the day until it reaches
the maximum water productivity around mid-noon at the highest
solar radiation, then decreases as the sun sets. In addition, it can be

Z.M. Omara et al. / Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

71

7000

a) Stepped still without mirrors

9/8/2012

1200

Accumulated distillate, ml/m2

Ex. Th.
Conventional still
Stepped still

1000
9/8/2012

Productivity, ml/m2.h

Conventional still

6000

800

600

400

Stepped still without mirrors

5/8/2012

5000

Conventional still
Stepped still
with mirrors

4000

3000

2000

1000
200
0
8

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time, h

0
8

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time,h

Fig. 7. The accumulative variation of fresh water for the stepped and the conventional
solar still.

b) Stepped still with mirrors

1200
Ex. Th.
Conventional still

Productivity, ml/m2.h

Stepped still

5/8/2012

1000

800

stepped solar still. It is found that, there is an acceptable agreement

between the theoretical and experimental data. The deviations between
experimental and theoretical results were about 6% and reached up to
13% for conventional and stepped solar stills, respectively.
4.3. Daily productivity

600

400

200

0
8

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Time,h
Fig. 6. The variation of fresh water productivity for the stepped and the conventional
solar still.

seen that the maximum productivity occurs at maximum temperature of saline water. Also, it can be observed from Fig. 6 that the
fresh water productivity for stepped stills is greater than that of
conventional type at all times.
Also, the gure shows that a wide productivity change was
recorded. Fig. 6a shows that the water productivity was around 0 in
the early mornings, reaching up to 930 and 650 ml/m 2 h as a maximum productivity at 1 p.m. for stepped still without mirrors and
conventional still, respectively. Therefore, at the mid-noon period,
the thermal losses of the solar still were minimal, and the thermal
performance increased proportionally. This is attributed to the increase of the surrounding ambient temperature of the still and higher
solar radiation. Fig. 6b shows that the water productivity was around
0 in the early mornings, reaching up to 960 and 605 ml/m 2 h as a
maximum productivity at 1 p.m. for stepped still with mirrors and
conventional still, respectively.
The model is validated by comparing theoretical results with
the corresponding experimental results obtained from the present
work. Fig. 6 shows the comparison between theoretical and experimental fresh water productivity for conventional solar still and

Fig. 7 shows a comparison between the hourly accumulative variations of fresh water productivity from 9 a.m. to sunset for the two
tested stills. It is found that the amount of accumulated distillate
for stepped solar still is higher than that of conventional still at all
times, where the hourly fresh water productivity is higher for stepped
solar still.
Comparison of the daily productivity (24 h) for both conventional
still and stepped still with and without mirrors is tabulated in Table 2.
It can be noticed from Table 2 that daily productivity reaches approximately 3720 and 5840 ml/m 2/day for conventional still and stepped
solar still without mirrors, respectively. In this case the increase in distillate production for stepped solar still without mirrors is 57% higher
than that for conventional still.
But the distillate reaches 3630 and 6350 ml/m 2day for stepped
still with mirrors and conventional still, respectively, and the increase
in daily productivity for stepped solar still is 75% higher than that
for conventional still. So that installing internal mirrors gave better
performance because these mirrors make use of the energy reected
on all the vertical sides of the steps of stepped still. Al-Hayek and
Badran [18] indicated that adoption of mirrors on the inside walls
of the solar stills will enhance the production of distilled water and
improve the efciency through controlling the radiation losses from
the still basin.

Table 2
Accumulated productivity for experiments days.
Date

12-6-2012
18-6-2012
17-7-2012
5-8-2012
9-8-2012

Daily productivity, ml/m2/day

Conventional

Stepped

Stepped with
mirrors

2800
2950
3450
3630
3720

4350

5840

5100
6000
6350

Daily productivity rise %

55
73
74
75
57

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Z.M. Omara et al. / Desalination 314 (2013) 6772

100

Greeks

b
g
w
d
s

Conventional still, 9/8/2012

90

Stepped still without mirrors, 9/8/2012

Hourly efficiency %

80

Stepped still with mirrors, 6/8/2012

70
60
50

solar altitude angle

absorptivity of the basin
absorptivity of the glass cover
absorptivity of the saline water solar azimuth angle
the daily efciency of the still
tilt angle of the glass cover
reectance
transmittance

40
30
20
10
0
8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Time, h

Subscripts
b
basin
c
convective
e
evaporative
fw
feed water
g
glass
r
radiative
w
water

Fig. 8. The hourly efciency variation for the stepped and the conventional solar still.

References
4.4. Efciency of the solar stills
Fig. 8 presented the hourly efciency of the two desalination systems. The results showed that the efciency for the modied stepped
still is higher than that for the conventional still, at all times, due to an
increase in the water evaporation and condensation for stepped still
compared with the conventional still. The results indicated that the
daily efciency for modied stepped with and without internal reectors and conventional solar stills is approximately 56%, 53% and 34%,
respectively.
5. Conclusions
The performance of a modied stepped solar still with mirrors
added on the vertical sides of the steps was investigated. The results
show that the thermal performance of a modied stepped solar still
can be considerably improved through the new modication. The
productivity of modied stepped solar still with and without internal
mirrors is higher than that for conventional still approximately by
75% and 57%, respectively.
Nomenclatures
A
area, m 2
C
specic heat, J/kg K
hfg
enthalpy of evaporation at Tw, J/kg
I(t)
solar radiation on inclined surface, W/m 2
ls
the step length
m
mass, kg
_ ew
m
the condensation rate, kg/s
Q
heat transfer rate, W
W
the tray width, mm

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