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Abstract
A numerical study has been carried out to investigate the transient thermal performance of a naturally circulated
humidifying/dehumidifiying solar still. A comparison of forced circulation performance and the influence of different
environmental, design, and operational parameters on the still productivity and efficiency were investigated. The
naturally circulated still shows very similar results to that of forced circulation. This finding is of significant technical
and economic importance. Different attempts have been considered to investigate the effect of partial storage of basin
energy and partial recovery of condensation energy. The results show insignificant changes on still performance. An
economic assessment of water production cost was also highlighted and showed that solar stills can challenge other
technologies for special applications.
Keywords: Desalination; Solar still; Humidification; Dehumidification
1. Introduction
Fresh water is the essence of life and is the
most important constituent of the environment.
Water is a basic human requirement for domestic,
industrial and agriculture purposes. Rapid international developments and population explosion
all over the world have resulted in a large
escalation of demand for fresh water. On the
other hand, surface water (rivers and lakes)
pollution caused by industrial, agricultural and
*Corresponding author.
0011-9164/04/$ See front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
130
131
Table 1
Thermo-physical properties of some storage materials
Material properties
Melting temperature, C
Latent heat of fusion, kJ/kg
Solid/liquid density, kg/m3
Thermal conductivity, W/m.C
Solid/liquid sp. heat, kJ/kg.C
Sand
1500
0.29
0.798
Paraffin wax
(Sunoco P116)
Glauberts salt
Na2SO410H2O
60
190
930/830
0.21
2.1
30
251
1460/1330
2.25
1.72/3.3
132
Glass
cover
Basin/
condenser
Insulation
Material
Window
glass
2700
0.754
Aluminum
2707
0.896
Fiber
glass
24
0.7
0.78
204
0.038
0.1
0.9
0.9
0.0
0.1
0.0
Density, kg/m3
Specific heat,
kJ/kg. C
Thermal
conductivity,
W/m.C
Absorbitivity
Transmissivity
133
134
(1)
C Basin insulation:
E Qin = QKab-i
I = Io sin (B t/tsu )
Qsu-g = "g I Ap
C Condenser:
(3)
C PCM/container:
Meq Ceq dTeq/dt = E Qin!E Qout
(4)
QEsw-a = HE Ap (Psw!Pa)
ME/CD = QE/CD/Hfg(t)
(5)
135
Dhyd = 4 Aa/perimeter
Aa = L (B!Thi)/2
(6)
1/4
/ [I(t) Ap]
(7)
(8)
136
Table 3 summarizes the environmental, design, and operational parameters and their studied
values for the parametric study.
3.1. Circulating air flow rate
As indicated above, the circulating air flow
rate depends on the balance between the driving
and resisting forces (pressures). Both forces
Table 3
Range of parameters for 2.0 m2 projected area still
Parameter
Environmental:
Solar intensity at mid-day, Io (W/m2)
Min./max. ambient temperature, C
Wind speed (Vw), m/s
Design:
Basin absorbitivity ("ab)
Condenser absorbitivity ("co)
Condenser/projected area ratio
Evaporation/projected area ratio
Basin (glass wool) insulation thickness, mm
Operational:
Basin water mass (Mb), kg
Initial water temperature, C
Still tilting angle (from horizontal)
Min. value
Max. value
600
10/20
0
800
20/30
2
1000
30/40
5
0.5
0.5
0.9
0.9
1
1
50
1.0
1.0
1.5, 2.0
1.5, 2.0
100
15
20
30
20
30
60
10
12
10
137
138
139
140
141
energy storage); 2.0 cm of Glauberts salt (melting temperature of 30C) was assumed to be
contained within the low temperature condenser.
142
143
erature increases. By about hour 10, the condenser temperature reaches its maximum and
starts to drop again till the solidification temperature of 30C, where it maintains constant
(during solidification process) till hour 21 where
it is fully solidified and the temperature drops
again. It is clear that at about hour 11, the
condenser temperature starts to be higher than the
glass temperature, and so is the dehumidified air
above the humidified air which causes air circulation to reverse. The reversed circulated air does
not cause any significant vapor to condense on
the glass cover since the air condition departs
from the saturation conditions after hour 13, as
shown in the psychrometric charts of Fig. 11.
3.5.3. Combined energy storage and recovery
Figs. 1214 show the third case of combining
the partial storage of basin energy for overnight
Fig. 12. Effect of combined absorber energy storage and condensation energy recovery on still performance.
144
145
146
Table 4
Typical case study for 1.0 m3/d solar distillation unit (US $1. = 5 EP)
Parameter
Normal case
Cheaper -1-
Remarks
Still area, m2
Still productivity, L/m2.d
Unit no. of stills
Unit area, m2
Annual production, m3
Still cost, EP
1
4
275
250
350
500
275
300*
100*
Unit cost, EP
Annual O&M
137,500
2,000
27,500
2,000
Capital installment, EP
13,750*
5,500**
15,750
45 ($9)
7,500
25 ($5)
147
4. Conclusions
148
5. Symbols
A
B
C
Gr
h
Hfg
H
I
K
L
M
m
P
Pr
Q
t
T
Th
U
v
V
w
Area, m2
Still width, m
Specific heat, J/kg C
Grashof number
Specific enthalpy, J/kg
Latent heat of evaporation, J/kg
Film coefficient of heat transfer,
W/m2 C
Solar intensity, W/m2
Thermal conductivity, W/m.C
Characteristic length, m
Mass, kg
Mass rate, kg/s
Pressure, Pa
Prandtl number
Heat transfer rate, W
Time, s
Temperature, C
Thickness, m
Overall coefficient of heat transfer,
W/m2C
Velocity, m/s
Volume, m3
Specific humidity, kgwater/kgair
Absorbtivity
Difference
Emissivity
Efficiency
Tilt angle
Density
Reflectivity
Radiation constant
Summation
Transmissivity
Greek
"
)
g
0
2
D@
D
F
E
J
Subscripts
a
am
Air
Ambient
av
ab
b
C
CD
co
D
Dh
E
erth
g
h
hyd
i
in
K
out
p
pw
R
Re
sid
sk
su
sw
w
1
2
Average
Absorber
Basin
Convection
Condensation
Condenser
Drive
Dehumidification
Evaporation
Earth
Glass
Humidification
Hydraulic
Insulation
Input
Conduction
Output
Projected
Product water
Radiation
Resisting
Side
Sky
Sun
Saline water
Wind
Inlet
Outlet
References
[1] G. Fiorenza, V.K. Sharma and G. Braccio, Technoeconomic evaluation of solar powered water
desalination plant, Energy Conversion Management,
in press.
[2] H.E.S. Fath, S. El-Sherbiny and A. Ghazy, Transient
analysis of a new humidification dehumidification
solar still, Desalination, 155 (2003) 187203.
[3] H.E.S. Fath, Solar desalination: a promising alternative for water provision with free energy, Simple
technology and a clean environment, Desalination,
116 (1998) 4556.
[4] A.A. Delyannis and E. Delyannis, Solar desalination,
Desalination, 50 (1984) 7181.
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[25]
149