Sun tracking system for productivity enhancement of solar still

A sun tracking system was deployed for enhancing the solar still productivity. A computerized sun tracking device was used for rotating the solar still with the movement of the sun. A comparison between fixed and sun tracked solar stills showed that the use of sun tracking increased the productivity for around 22%, due to the increase of overall efficiency by 2%. It can be concluded that the sun tracking is more effective than fixed system and it is capable of enhancing the productivity.

Introducing the sun tracking system to a fixed solar still has improved the performance of the traditional fixed single slope solar system by 22%. This means that there is a scope to improve the poor performance of this traditional solar still system. Also from the results of this work, the following conclusion may be made: • By using the sun tracker the water temperature increases, and the thermal capacity of the water decreases, by which the evaporation rate increases, hence the production will be increased. • The conventional single basin solar still is the simplest and most practical design for an installation and less complexity than the other types. Solar distillation may be considered as one of the alternatives for fresh water production in remote arid zones where no fresh water is available, in the quantity where it is needed for specific purposes. Consequently, solar distillation seems to be specifically relevant to Jordan now, and even more so in the future.