Treatment of Polluted Water with Solar Energy: Solar Still with a Vegetable Tar

Abstract

Clean and safe drinking water is super important for our health. But in many places worldwide, there are issues because there isn't enough clean water to drink, or the water isn't pure. Solar distillation offers a sustainable approach to water treatment, utilizing solar energy to convert impure water into potable water through evaporation and condensation. In this study, we investigated the effect of vegetable Tar on the performance of solar still. Five similar solar stills were tested, with one serving as the reference (CSS) and the others modified with varying thicknesses of vegetable Tar MSS1 (0.25 cm), MSS2 (0.5 cm), MSS3 (0.75 cm) , and MSS4 (1 cm). The results revealed significant improvements in the accumulation of pure water in the modified stills, with MSS1, MSS2, MSS3, and MSS4 achieving 35%, 43.8%, 49%, and 56% higher accumulations, respectively, compared to the CSS still.