Experimental research on solar chimneys integrated with seawater desalination under practical weather condition

A small-scale experimental device for solar chimneys integrated with sea water desalination (abbreviated in integrated system) has been set up. Its performance has been studied based on the practical weather condition. The experimental results show that the integrated system can achieve simultaneously the multi-targeted production indeed, such as power and freshwater. The main period of the distilled water output is during the absence of solar irradiance, but the minimum output is during the period of the strong radiance. The airflow temperature rises along the radial of the system and the temperature rise mainly occurs in the first 1/3 section of the heat collector radius. The variation trend of theoretical generated power against time is in accordance with that of air temperature at the chimney entrance. Compared to the solo solar chimney power generation system, the integrated system would significantly improve the utilization efficiency of the solar energy. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.