Productivity enhancement of solar still with phase change materials and water-absorbing material

Due to the lower productivity of solar still, researchers from all around the world are continually ensuing to improve distillate output. Hence, there are lots of opportunities and scope of research work on the solar still. Solar desalination is the process of purification saline water to get fresh potable water using direct solar energy. Seawater is available in abundance but the process of desalinating the seawater is very expensive due to enormous energy requirements. Over the years direct solar energy is used as one of the cheapest desalination methods to drive the desalination systems which has no environmental impact also. The solar-based desalination system is referred to as solar still. The basin water depth is inversely proportional to the productivity of potable water. The difference between saline water temperature and glass temperature controls the evaporation rate. The water surface area is directly proportional to the distillation rate. The water surface area has been increased by submerging the wicks in the water, the use of porous materials, fins, sponge, etc. Instead of a single flat horizontal collector, the cascade style still gives more useful results in terms of desalination. The use of phase change materials helped further in the overall increase in the distillation rate. In the present short review paper research works done in this decade have been considered and four primary methods like the effect of the finned absorber plate, cotton wick, and phase change material and nanoparticles have been discussed. It will help future research in the area of solar still to provide an economically viable solution for sustainable potable water.