This research primarily concentrates on the use of integrating solar stills. Only few researchers have carried out experiments on still-still basis for improved yield. In the present novel system the yield of fresh water is improved by integrating inclined solar still with triangular pyramid solar still. Effect of water depth and flow rate on the yield of fresh water produced from stills was experimentally investigated. Various water depths such as 0.02m, 0.04m, 0.06m, 0.08m are maintained in the interior of the basin of pyramidal solar still in case of non-integration whereas 0.02m depth of water is maintained initially and outlet water of inclined solar still is fed to the triangular pyramidal solar still thereby the water temperature increases which enhances the yield of fresh water. The inclined solar still is maintained at constant flow rate of about 8.33kg/h. Results show that the yield of solar still is improved by 79.05% in the case of inclined solar still incorporated to triangular pyramid solar still. Results also shows that higher water temperature is achieved in the case of inclined solar still integrated to triangular pyramid solar still at the minimum water depth of dw = 0.02m.

This paper presents the theoretical analysis of a triangular pyramid solar still integrated to an inclined solar still with baffles. The performance of the solar still depends on water mass inside the basin. The yield of triangular pyramid solar still is increased by integrating it to an inclined solar still with baffles. Analytically, the water mass inside the basin is increased from 20 to 100 kg. Theoretical results show that the increase in water mass decreases the yield from 6% to 46% during the daytime, whereas due to thermal energy storage at higher mass, the yield during the nighttime increases from 46% to 86% with integration. Similarly, a triangular pyramid solar still is theoretically analysed for its performance.

This paper presents the detailed exergy and economic investigation of triangular pyramid solar still under passive and active mode of operation. For validation, experiments were carried out at different water depth maintained inside the basin under a continuous flow of water from an inclined solar still. Results confirm that the effect of integration rises the exergy efficiency during the offshine period, whereas during the sunshine hours the exergy efficiency decreases when the maintained the depth of water inside basin decreases. Similar study on economic analysis shows that the net pay back period increases from 5.6 to 11.4 with an increase in the water depth at an average selling price of water Rs 5/kg in a standalone triangular pyramid solar still.