Design and implementation of an advanced solar water distillation system for the efficient purification of contaminated water into clean drinking water

Solar energy is abundant in Sri Lanka, but there is currently no efficient method to use solar energy to purify polluted water into fresh water. This study aimed to address this issue by introducing an advanced solar water distillation system. The basin size of the prototype unit was 0.48 m2 and its performance was tested using different setups: a basin only (T1), a basin with a flat-plate solar collector (T2), a basin on a sand layer (T3), a basin with sponge cubes (T4), and a basin with all components together (T5). Data were collected at 30-minute intervals from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm for each treatment. The results showed that T5 performed significantly better than the other treatments (p<0.05). The maximum temperature recorded for the basin water was 59°C when the ambient air was at 64°C in T5. The flat-plate solar collector, sand layer, and sponge cubes contributed to increase the distilled volume by 73.0%, 20.5%, and 48.2% respectively. The new solar water distillation system with all the features (T5) can improve the distillation productivity by 138% compared to the conventional type (T1) by giving 4143 ml/m2/day of average production. The new distillation system is an effective solution for addressing the drinking water issue in agricultural areas, as it consistently demonstrates satisfactory quality in terms of pH, EC, TDS, and concentrations of As and Cd.