Exergoeconomic and environmental analysis of seawater desalination system augmented with nanoparticles and cotton hung pad

In this work, the performance of solar still was enhanced using nanotechnology and cotton hung pad. The cotton hung pad has threads with ends immersed in seawater, hence the capillary property moves the water upward towards the evaporation surface. The cotton hung pad (small layer), and nanoparticles have a significant effect on localizing the heat that speed up the seawater evaporation rate and improve the performance. The Fe3O4, and CuO nanoparticle materials are used and spreaded to the top surface of the cotton pad with different concentrations in the range of 25 g/m(2) to 300 g/m(2). Also, the exergoeconomic of the desalination system and environmental analysis are investigated. The results showed an enhancement of about 17.55% in the productivity for the modified solar still (MSS) with cotton hung alone compared with the TSS. The configuration of cotton hung pad and nanoparticles with a concentration of 150 g/m(2) enhanced the distillate productivity by about 42.3% and 56.6% for Fe3O4 and CuO nanoparticles, respectively compared to TSS. The highest efficiency was about 51%, 45%, 34.5% and 30% for MSS with CuO, MSS with Fe3O4, cotton hung pad only and TSS, respectively. The exergy values showed enhancement of 103% for MSS with CuO compared to TSS. The economic analysis of different modifications indicated that the cost per liter of fresh water was 0.018 $, 0.016 $, and 0.015 $ for MSS with cotton pad and Fe3O4; cotton pad and CuO; and cotton pad only, respectively while the cost for TSS was 0.0189 US$. Furthermore, the exergoeconomic and environmental analysis of enhanced solar stills showed that these systems are cost-effective and helpful in cutting down carbon footprint by mitigation of CO2. Overall, integrating nanoparticles with cotton hung pads were proved to be very effective and promising from economic, environmental, and exergy point of views. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.