Energy, exergy, economic and enviroeconomic (4E) analyses of solar distillation system using different absorbing materials

In this study, the energetic, exergetic, economic and enviroeconomic (4E) analyses of single slope solar still using steel mesh fibers (a new porous medium) and hollow cylindrical pin fins as absorbing materials are investigated. Three cases are considered, case 1: traditional solar still, case 2: with hollow cylindrical pin fins, case 3: with steel wool fibers. The performance of the three cases is experimentally evaluated under the same meteorological situations. The results show that the total daily cumulative yield of distillate water in cases 2 and 3 enhanced by 16% and 25%, respectively in comparison with case 1. Also, the maximum energy efficiencies of cases 1, 2 and 3 are 42%, 45.5%, and 52.5%, respectively. It is observed that the modified stills (cases 2 and 3) exhibit an increment of the average daily exergy efficiency of 14% and 23%, respectively. Furthermore, economic analysis findings revealed that the costs per liter per square meter for the cases 1, 2 and 3 are 0.0427$, 0.0416$, and 0.0343$, respectively. Eventually, it was observed that the proposed systems (Cases 2 and 3) achieved an annual reduction of 14.4 and 15.6 tons of CO2 emissions, respectively.