EFFECT OF THERMAL STORAGE MATERIAL ON THE EFFICIENCY OF SINGLE SLOPE SOLAR STILL CO-AUTHORS, PROF SUMAILA MALACHY, PROF SAMAILA UMAR

This research presents the analysis into the development of a simple, efficient cost effective Single Slope Solar Still (SSSS) with Energy Storage Medium (ESM). The analysis experimented the temperature relationships of the various factors of the Single Slope Solar Still. The relationships between the parameters like the Temperature of the Glass cover Tg, Temperature of the solar Absorber plate/Water Tw, Temperature of the Energy storage materials T3, Temperature of the solar still box T₂, then the atmospheric pressure variations Pa, Wind Speed, Solar Irradiances, and Quantity of water distilled were studied and their effect on the distillate output. The effect of the Sensible Heat of the Storage medium of the two models A and B showed significant difference to the Single Slope Solar Still. It was observed that gravel with more thermal conductivity of 2.6x10w/mk and heat capacity of 1.6x10³KJ/m^{3 o}C gave the highest yield efficiency of 33.62%, while a 30.66% for Solar Still B with Laterite as Energy Storage material as in comparison with the single slope solar still without Energy storage system maintaining a nominal of 29.47. The field of Sensible Heat as Energy Storage and Latent Heat from Phase Change Material can significantly improve the efficiency of the Single Slope Solar Still to a reasonable extent at a more economic rates than other water distillation systems.A Statistical Tool Minitab was used for the one Way All Analysis of Variance to check the P-Values of 0.05 for the significance difference of the three solar Stills A, B and C. The Turkey result for the efficiency at confidence interval of 95% gave a significant difference with a positive P value above the “S” interval meaning that there is significant difference statistically between Solar Still B and C, Solar Still A and C. Their significant differences are related to the 5kg Energy Storage System incorporated into the Single slope solar still.