TY - JOUR TI - Performance investigation of single-slope solar stills with dripping arrangement and nano ZrO2 particles AU - Velumayil Ramesh AU - Seikh Hossain Asiful AU - Kalam Abul Md AU - Nathamuni Mohanrajhu AU - Ravishankar Sathyamurthy AU - Venugopal Jayaprakash AU - Kathirvel Saravanan AU - Shanmugam Arunprasad AU - Vijayan V. JN - Thermal Science PY - 2023 VL - 27 IS - 6 SP - 4831 EP - 4839 PT - Article AB - In many parts of the world, fresh drinking water is in short supply. The solar still produced a daily output of only 3 L, but it was used in providing a sustainable supply of clean drinking water. The climate of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India was tested from 8.30 a. m. to 5.30 p. m. on April 2023 using a modified solar still (MSS) for the experiment. The effectiveness of a MSS has been increased over that of a conventional solar still (CSS) by using as nanoparticle of ZrO2 and a dripping arrangement of water. The yields of MSS and CSS were determined experimentally to be 2.22 L per m2 and 3.39 L per m2, respectively. It was found that the CSS and MSS had thermal efficiencies of 25% and 35%, respectively. It has also been noticed that the MSS in its modified form has increased efficiency by 52.5%. Water costs 0.95 Rs per L under the CSS and 0.75 Rs per L under the MSS, as determined by their respective economic analyses. Solar still using nanomaterials and dripping arrangement improved output. It has also been noticed that the MSS in its modified form has increased efficiency by 52.5%.