Performance evaluation of distillation-cum-greenhouse for a warm and humid climate

Abstract This paper describes the performance evaluation of distillation-cum-greenhouse for a warm and humid climatic condition. Numerical computations have been carried out for a typical day in January for Chennai, India. Various temperatures, namely plant and water, as a function of climatic and design parameters, were obtained by solving coupled single-order differential equations using the Runge-Kutta method. Room air, transparent cover, basin liner temperature and distillate output were also worked out by using the value of plant and water temperature. Analysis showed that there is a significant effect in the plant, water temperatures and distillate output due to a change in the fraction of the solar radiation incident on the north wall (Fn), depth of water, αb and the inclination of the roof whereas the heat capacity of the plant has a marginal effect on these temperatures and distillate output. The study revealed that vegetables can be grown in a warm and humid climate in a coastal region by the construction of a distillation-cum-greenhouse unit.