A low cost design solar desalination unit

A novel low cost design solar still is described and performance data are presented. The proposed design eliminates the need for support or side-walls, as required in most conventional solar still designs. A comparison of the measured still productivity values between the proposed design and a large solar distillation plant constructed in India has shown that our design simplification has not affected still performances. An economic analysis, based upon the fraction of still construction cost dedicated to the still wall construction, has indicated that the proposed design should reduce the overall cost/m² of the solar still construction by at least 20%.