The design development of both active and passive
solar stills accelerates more and more solar energy
utilization for desalination of water in a cost
effective manner. For rural people in remote areas,
passive solar still specially the wick or capillary
type seems to be an attractive choice to get water
for drinking and other domestic purposes.
Advances have made to improve the evaporation
rate of a capillary solar still by changing the fiber
and fabric. From multi layer thick fabric
researchers move to very thin fabric. Again the
fiber used now is hydrophobic one rather than the
hydrophilic. This enhances the durability of the
still fabric. The design complicacy is not desirable
for the rural domestic applications. Hence, the
material developments should be the point of focus
for future research in this area.