Fabrication of Solar Desalination System and Experimental Investigation of its Performance, Located in Ahvaz City

Document Type : Full Lenght Research Article

Authors

1 Faculty member of Mechanical Engineering Group, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran

2 MSc student, Mechanical Engineering Group, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran.

3 Faculty member of Mechanical Engineering Group, Payame Noor University, Iran

Abstract

With the increasing population and heightening quality levels of life in the world, the use of freshwater resources has increased to such an extent that their shortage is considered a serious crisis. Today, manufacturing and untiring solar stills, which produce freshwater without polluting the environment, besides, at a low cost, have been considered a suitable solution to eliminate the shortage of fresh water. In recent years, water desalination has been at the center of interest more than ever in Iran because of the drought and water shortage crisis. For this reason, the design and manufacture of distilled solar still suitable for the geographical conditions of Ahvaz were accomplished. And a device with two inclined planes was selected after studying different types of distilled solar stills. In the first step, a thermal model of different heat transfer phenomena including radiation, conductivity, evaporation, and condensation was employed so that it was utilized to predict the performance of the device in various conditions and the heat analysis of the system. The governing equations in MATLAB software were then implemented and solved. According to the results of the software, which estimates the amount of the produced water using meteorological data consisting of radiation intensity and ambient air temperature, as well as the material features of different parts of the device, the dimensions of the device were designed and the device was manufactured. This device was tested on one of the winter days in January and the production amount of freshwater, as well as temperatures of glass coatings, water, and absorbent surface, were recorded. The production amount of freshwater on the 4th of January in a practical test was 0.98 L/m2.

Keywords

Main Subjects


[1]    Duffie, J.A. and Beckman, W.A., 2013. Solar engineering of thermal processes. John Wiley & Sons.
[2]    Noghrehabadi, A., Hajidavaloo, E., Moravej, M. and Esmailinasab, A., 2018. An experimental study of the thermal performance of the square and rhombic solar collectors. Thermal Science, 22 (1 Part B), pp.487-494.
[3]    Zhang, Y., Ravi, S.K. and Tan, S.C., 2019. Food-derived carbonaceous materials for solar desalination and thermo-electric power generation. Nano Energy, 65, p.104006.
[4]    Rashidi, S., Karimi, N., Mahian, O. and Abolfazli Esfahani, J., 2019. A concise review on the role of nanoparticles upon the productivity of solar desalination systems. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 135, pp.1145-1159.
[5]    Rafiei, A., Alsagri, A. S., Mahadzir, S., Loni, R., Najafi, G., & Kasaeian, A. 2019, Thermal analysis of a hybrid solar desalination system using various shapes of cavity receiver: Cubical, cylindrical, and hemispherical. Energy Conversion and Management 198 p. 111861.‏
[6]    Hassan, H., & Yousef, M. S., 2021. An assessment of energy, exergy and CO2 emissions of a solar desalination system under hot climate conditions.Process Safety and Environmental Protection,145, pp. 157-171.‏‏
[7]    Abd Elbar, Ayman Refat, and Hamdy Hassan, 2020. An experimental work on the performance of new integration of photovoltaic panel with solar still in semi-arid climate conditions. Renewable Energy 146, pp. 1429-1443.
[8]    Manokar, A. Muthu, M. Vimala, Ravishankar Sathyamurthy, A. E. Kabeel, D. Prince Winston, and Ali J. Chamkha, 2020. Enhancement of potable water production from an inclined photovoltaic panel absorber solar still by integrating with flat-plate collector Environment, Development and Sustainability 22, pp. 4145-4167.
[9]    Salarabadi, Amir, and Masoud Rahimi, 2020. Experimental investigation of using an evaporation inhibitor layer in a solar still. Solar Energy 206, pp. 962-973.
[10] Nazari, Saeed, Habibollah Safarzadeh, and Mehdi Bahiraei, 2019. Performance improvement of a single slope solar still by employing thermoelectric cooling channel and copper oxide nanofluid: an experimental study. Journal of Cleaner Production 208. pp. 1041-1052.
[11] Sharshir, S.W., Ellakany, Y.M., Algazzar, A.M., Elsheikh, A.H., Elkadeem, M.R., Edreis, E.M., Waly, A.S., Sathyamurthy, R., Panchal, H. and Elashry, M.S., 2019. A mini review of techniques used to improve the tubular solar still performance for solar water desalination. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 124, pp.204-212.
[12] Manokar, A.M., Vimala, M., Winston, D.P., Ramesh, R., Sathyamurthy, R., Nagarajan, P.K. and Bharathwaaj, R., 2019. Different parameters affecting the condensation rate on an active solar still—a review. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, 38(1), pp.286-296.
[13] Khalifa, A.J.N. and Ibrahim, H.A., 2009. Effect of inclination of the external reflector on the performance of a basin type solar still at various seasons. Energy for Sustainable Development, 13(4), pp.244-249.
[14] Khalifa, Abdul Jabbar N., and Ahmad M. Hamood, 2009. Effect of insulation thickness on the productivity of basin type solar stills: an experimental verification under local climate." Energy Conversion and Management 50(9), pp. 2457-2461
[15] Murugavel, K. Kalidasa, and K. Srithar, 2011. Performance study on basin type double slope solar still with different wick materials and minimum mass of water. Renewable Energy 36(2), pp. 612-620.
[16] Kalbasi, Rasool, and M. Nasr Esfahani, 2010. Multi-effect passive desalination system, an experimental approach." World Applied Sciences Journal 10(10), pp. 1264-1271.
[17] Sakthivel, M., S. Shanmugasundaram, and T. Alwarsamy, 2010. An experimental study on a regenerative solar still with energy storage medium—Jute cloth. Desalination 264, no. 1(2), pp. 24-31.
[18] Bechki, D., H. Bouguettaia, J. Blanco-Galvez, S. Babay, B. Bouchekima, S. Boughali, and H. Mahcene, 2010. Effect of partial intermittent shading on the performance of a simple basin solar still in south Algeria. Desalination 260(1-3), pp. 65-69.
[19] Al-Garni, A.Z., 2012. Productivity enhancement of solar still using water heater and cooling fan. Journal of solar energy engineering, 134(3).
[20] Rajaseenivasan, T. and Murugavel, K.K., 2013. Theoretical and experimental investigation on double basin double slope solar still. Desalination, 319, pp.25-32.
[21] Moravej, M., Bozorg, M.V., Guan, Y., Li, L.K., Doranehgard, M.H., Hong, K. and Xiong, Q., 2020. Enhancing the efficiency of a symmetric flat-plate solar collector via the use of rutile TiO2-water nanofluids. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 40, p.100783.