RECENT TRENDS IN SOLAR DESALINATION SYSTEMS
Keywords:
solar still, desalination, brackish water, saline water, distillation, solar energyAbstract
Clean water is an essential requirement of any country for drinking, domestic use and other industrial,
agricultural purposes for which a large quantity of clean water is required. The increasing demand for water is basically due
to the increase of population and rapid growth of industries. About 97% of available water sources are saline and/or consist
of harmful bacteria and 2% are in the form of frozen glaciers and polar ice. Thus, only 1% of the earth's water can be used
conveniently for drinking and domestic applications. The solar desalination system has the advantage of low maintenance
and operational cost. Despite the solar stills have high investment cost, they are environment friendly. The solar still is
simple in construction and can be fabricated easily by locally available materials even with the help of unskilled man power.
They are largely used for water purification in rural and remote areas with limited demand and low population when
abundant amount of solar energy are available. In the present article a review has been presented in the field of recent trends
in solar desalination system.
