Figures

Figure 2: This data table demonstrates the progression of the solar stills. Four distinct circular basin solar stills were built prior to the fifth attempt: “Emergency Solar Still – Saran Wrap” (the first functioning still). All stills were built using a circular basin, but cover sheet materials differed across designs. All designs were tested under the exact same conditions: using heat from a singular halogen light bulb.

Figure 3: Since the “Emergency Solar Still – Saran Wrap,” successfully desalinated the salt water, it was assumed that using a clear plastic tarp as the cover sheet, instead of saran wrap, would work as well. Due to the increased thickness of the tarp (0.94 inches vs. 0.0005 inches), no effluent was produced by the “Emergency Solar Still – Clear Plastic Tarp.”

Figure 4: Three emergency solar stills with saran cover sheets were tested in unison; one had a single layer of saran wrap, the second had two layers, and the third had three (0.0127 mm, 0.0254 and 0.0381 mm, respectively). All testing conditions for Model 7 were the same as Model 5, except for the type of bucket. Since Model 7 produced no effluent, Model 8 used the buckets used for Model 5. Regardless, no effluent was produced by any of the stills because they did not get sufficiently hot since multiple were tested at a time.