Solar desalination unit coupled with a novel humidifier

The solar desalination system is experimentally investigated according to humidification dehumidification methodology (HDH) with hot air stream flow and heat pump as a condensation unit. The effects of high frequency ultrasound atomizer number, water height and hot air stream flow rate on distillate yield are studied. The results illustrated that increasing of atomizer number and decreasing water height increases the daily distillate production. The maximum daily freshwater productivity occurred at six atomizer number with an increase of 38.6% and 115% compared with atomizer number four and two, respectively. Furthermore, water height at 1 cm is the most efficient with an increment of 16% and 28.6% compared with 2 cm and 3 cm, respectively. The optimum hot air stream flow rate is 0.011 kg/s with an increment of 36.88%, 31.07%, 6.48%, 11.72%, 23.52% and 38.60% compared with 0.009, 0.010, 0.013, 0.014, 0.016, and 0.017 kg/s, flow rates, respectively. The air mass flow rate has a significant impact on system performance. The maximum gain output ratio (GOR) of the system is about 1.54. The daily production reaches 7.72 kg\day, the system energy efficiency is 33.84% and 1.43% exergy efficiency the estimated cost is 0.0112 US$/L. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The experimental investigation on a solar desalination system using the HDH methodology shows that increasing atomizer number and reducing water height lead to higher distillate production. The optimal hot air stream flow rate and the significant impact of air mass flow rate on system performance were also highlighted in the study.