Experimental investigations on tubular solar stills using supplementary solar thermal collectors for improved production

Solar distillation techniques have evolved since antiquity and remain in a state of ongoing development. While the tubular solar still (TSS) signifies a recent progression in solar distillation technologies, it is still in the developmental phase. The present study aims to improve the productivity of TSS by integrating additional solar collectors to augment water evaporation rates and consequently improve productivity. The novelty of this research is that it experiments with the coupling of three different solar collectors [Case-1 (TSS+PTC), Case-2 (TSS+ETC), and Case-3 (TSS+CPC)] for the first time in a comparative setup with the aim of improving the performance of TSS. And their performance was compared against a baseline TSS without such modifications. Experimental investigations were conducted with all TSS configurations arranged side by side at Nagpur India (21.135°N, 79.0033°E). Results indicate that in the case of Case-3 (TSS+CPC) the productivity of the solar still increased by approximately 2.2 times higher than that of the conventional baseline TSS. The economic analysis reveals that the TSS-CPC offers the most economical solution among all the investigated systems.