Humidification dehumidification saline water desalination system utilizing high frequency ultrasonic humidifier and solar heated air stream

An experimental investigation on the solar desalination system was conducted according to humidification dehumidification methodology hybrid with hot air stream flow and vapor compression cycle as a condensation unit. A high-frequency ultrasonic atomizer (HFUA) was used as a humidifier which rapidly reaches 100% Relative Humidity. The tests were done during Aug. and Sept. 2020 under the climate of Suez city, Egypt 29.9668 degrees N, 32.5498 degrees E. The effect of high-frequency ultrasound atomizer situation, water height, and hot air stream flow rate on distillate yield were studied. The results illustrated that increasing atomizer number and decreasing water height increases the daily distillate production. The maximum daily freshwater productivity occurred at atomizer number N = 6, rising 38.6% and 115% compared with N = 4 and N = 2, respectively. Furthermore, water height at H = 1 cm is the most efficient with 16% and 28.6% increment compared with H = 2 cm and H = 3 cm, respectively. The optimum hot air stream flow rate m(a) = 0.01156 kg/s with an increment of 55.95%, 31%, 6.48%, 11.3%, and 38.5% compared with 0.0086, 0.01011, 0.013006, 0.0144, and 0.0173 kg/s, flow rates, respectively. The daily production reaches 7.72 kg\day, the system efficiency 33.84 % and the estimated cost per unit liter is 0.03437 $/L.

Automated summary

The experimental study showed that increasing the number of atomizers, reducing water height, and selecting the optimal hot air stream flow rate can enhance the distillate yield and efficiency of the solar desalination system.