Improvement Techniques in Performance and Productivity of Solar Stills

Adequate quality and reliab ility of drinking water supply is a fundamental need. Along with food and air, water is a necessity for man. Fresh water is obtained from lakes, rivers and ponds but it becoming scarce because of industrial effluent, sewage and population explosion. solar still is a d istillation of brackish or saline water, wherever it is available, is a good method to obtain fresh water by exposing thin layer of salt water to solar radiation and water vaporized from the brine, condensed on the un derside of a sloped transparent cover in such a way that it can be collected in receiv ing troughs at the end of the still. Active and passive solar stills are the major type of solar stills. Methodologies used in the past years to improve the productivity of solar still build based on variations in geometry, materials; methods of construction and operation were rev iewed in this paper. Techniques to improve the Performance of the solar stills are also investigate in this paper.