Effect of different absorbing materials on solar distillation under the climatic condition of Manipal

Solar distillation can be used effectively to produce portable water using sea water, but its low efficiency has restricted its utilization. It could be still employed at hot climatic geographical locations such as Manipal effectively to produce portable drinking water. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of different absorbing materials on distillate production under the climatic condition of Manipal so as achieve maximum distillate. Single-basin double slope solar still with an effective insolation area of 0.6m2 was used to carry out the investigation. Experimental results as expected showed that the distillate production increased with different absorbing materials as compared to distillate production without any absorbing materials. Ink and dye were used as absorbing materials and results were compared against distillation with any absorbing materials.