Investigation on the performance enhancement of single-slope solar still using green fibre insulation derived from Artocarpus heterophyllus rags reinforced with Azadirachta indica gum

The fruits and vegetable waste has become the highest compared with the production rate. These types of wastes had reached up to 70% by 2019-2020 as estimated by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Improvisation of the performance of still using fibre insulation (Artocarpus heterophyllus rags and Azadirachta indica gum (AHRAIG)) has been carried out in this study. Potable water demand in arid areas is a vast problem where fresh water is very expensive. The proposed solar still (PSS) retains the basin temperature and raises the rate of evaporation. Rags are latex-like filament extracted from the waste of the jackfruit peels and an adhesive agent from Azadirachta indica tree. A comparison is made among still without insulation (SWI), still with polystyrene insulation (SPI) and still with fibre insulation (SFI) in producing the fresh water under same ambient conditions. The experiments result a promising yield of 9.3% rate of rise of potable water produced using AHRAIG insulation related to conventional still. The energy efficiency is premeditated as 26.45%, while the exergy efficiency is 4.07%. The production of the potable water reached 2.58 L/m(2) for still with polystyrene insulation, 3.26 L/m(2) for fibre insulation and 1.93 L/m(2) for still without insulation, respectively.

Automated summary

The study improved the performance of still using fibre insulation, increasing the production of potable water, and compared the effects of different insulation materials on freshwater production. Fibre insulation significantly increased the production of potable water, while energy efficiency and exergy efficiency also saw improvements.