THERMAL-ANALYSIS OF ACTIVE SOLAR DISTILLATION SYSTEM

In this communication, the thermal analysis of a distillation unit und er the active mode of operation has been presented. In this case, the basin of the solar still unit has been integrated with the panel of co llectors through a tube-in-tube heat exchanger with provision of two p umps, one each in the collector and solar still loops. Based on energy balances for the different components of the active solar distillatio n unit, analytical expressions for the water and glass temperatures, h ourly yield and the overall efficiency of the system have been obtaine d. On the basis of numerical computations, it is observed that the eff iciency of the ideal active solar distillation unit is 38%, while the actual efficiency of the system for a particular set of parameters is around 15%.