Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Energy, exergy, economic and environmental (4E) analysis of a solar

desalination system with humidification-dehumidification
Emrah Deniz a,⇑, Serkan Çınar b
a
Karabuk University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 78050 Karabuk, Turkey
b
Karabuk University, Graduate School of Natural & Applied Sciences, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 78050 Karabuk, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel humidification-dehumidification (HDH) solar desalination system is designed and tested with
Received 1 April 2016 actual conditions and solar energy was used to provide both thermal and electrical energy. Energy-
Received in revised form 28 June 2016 exergy analyses of the system are made and economic and enviro-economic properties are investigated
Accepted 24 July 2016
using data obtained from experimental studies. In this way, economic and environmental impacts of the
Available online 30 July 2016
HDH solar desalination systems have also been determined. The maximum daily energy efficiency of the
system was calculated as 31.54% and the maximum exergy efficiency was found as 1.87%. The maximum
Keywords:
fresh water production rate is obtained as 1117.3 g/h. The estimated cost of fresh water produced
Solar energy
Humidification-dehumidification
through the designed HDH system is 0.0981 USD/L and enviro-economic parameter is 2.4041 USD/
Efficiency annum.
Exergy, economic and enviro-economic Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
analysis
Desalination

1. Introduction
Fresh water shortage and increasing energy demand are among
the most serious problems worldwide as a result of continually
increasing world population. In addition to limited and rapidly
depleting fossil-based energy sources, the greenhouse gas emis-
sions that also cause global warming has increased renewable
energy use. Compared to other renewable sources, solar energy is
more advantageous for the purpose of producing both energy
and fresh water, and solar energy applications are widely studied
throughout the world.
It is a good way to produce fresh water from salty waters of sea
or other ground resources by using solar energy or low grade waste
heat from any heat-producing facility. Desalination process mainly
needs a low cost, abundant thermal energy. Solar energy is one of
the most suitable heat sources that can be used for this kind of
applications especially in the solar belt region where the water
scarcity is also felt the most seriously.
Water consumption in the world is used for irrigation (70%),
industrial purposes (20%) and domestic use (10%) for drinking
and cleaning. The installed capacity of water desalination systems
by the beginning of millennium was about 22 million m3/day and
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: edeniz@karabuk.edu.tr (E. Deniz), serkanncinar78@gmail.com
(S. Çınar).
has increased to 71.7 million m3/day in ten years which requires
roughly 650 million tons of oil annually if only the oil is to be used
for heating salt water [1].
Solar water desalination has a long history as being used for
desalinating non-drinkable water to produce potable water espe-
cially in remote areas with water shortages or scarcity. There are
two types of solar desalination with two ways of using solar energy
as directly or indirectly. Solar energy, collected from solar radia-
tion, can be used directly to heat salty water in order to produce
fresh water which is low cost and practical especially for small
scale applications. They have low operation temperature and vapor
pressure which make their production output less than their indi-
rect counterparts. Two main types of direct desalination technique
are HDH method and solar stills.
Rain production is a gigantic application of HDH method by
which drinkable water is produced from salty water of seas and
oceans. Sun, as a heat source, is used to evaporate about 16 million
tons of water from land to the atmosphere each second [2]. Vapor
is carried by the winds to where it comes across a low temperature
zone and condenses to form precipitates as rain, snow, etc. HDH
desalination method is a tiny replica of this process where air is
heated by a solar air heater (SAH) to increase vapor holding capac-
ity. One kg of air can carry about 100 g water vapor at 60 °C and it
rises up to 500 g at 80 °C) [3].
EL-Shazly et al. investigated the effects of using packed bed of
screens with different width as humidifier in a solar HDH system

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2016.07.064
0196-8904/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19 13

Nomenclature

A surface area (m2) V voltage (V)

AC annual cost W moisture content of air (kgwater/kgair)
AMC annual maintenance operational cost of the system W1 moisture content of the air at SAH inlet (kgwater/kgair)
ASV annual salvage value W3 moisture content of air at dehumidifier inlet
CPL cost of fresh water ($/L) (kgwater/kgair)
CRF capital recovery factor W4 moisture content of air at dehumidifier outlet
cp specific heat (kJ/kg K) (kgwater/kgair)
Edw energy required for distilled water (W) zCO2 international carbon price ($/ton)
E_ vdest exergy destroyed (W) ZCO2 enviroeconomic parameter ($/annum)
E_ vew exergy of latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
E_ vin exergy input (W) Greek letters
E_ vin;ah exergy received by the air heater collector (W) as effective absorptance-transmittance product
E_ vin;wh exergy received by the water heater collector (W) g energy efficiency (%)
E_ vin;pv inlet exergy of PV panel (W) gex exergy efficiency (%)
E_ vproduct exergy produced (W) U relative humidity (%)
E_ vsun exergy input (W) /CO2 CO2 emitted per annum (ton/annum)
FAC fixed annual cost wCO2 average CO2 equivalent intensity for electricity genera-
FR heat removal factor tion from coal (kg CO2/kW h)
G global radiation (W/m2 K)
ha enthalpy of ambient air (kJ/kg K) Subscripts
ha2 enthalpy of air at SAH outlet (kJ/kg) 1 air heater input
ha6 enthalpy of air at dehumidifier inlet (kJ/kg)
2 air heater output
ha7 enthalpy of air at dehumidifier outlet (kJ/kg) 3 water heater input
I current (A) 4 water heater output
I solar intensity over the inclined surface (W/m2) 5 waste water outlet from the humidifier
i interest per year
6 saturated vapor inlet to the condenser
L latent heat of vaporization (J/kg) 7 dehumidified air from the condenser
m _ mass flow rate (kg/s) 8 cooling water inlet to the condenser
m _ ew hourly yield/output of solar HDH system (kg/h)
9 cooling water outlet from the condenser
M average annual yield of solar still (L/year) 10 clean water temperature at outlet the of dehumidifier
n number of life years of the system (year) a air and ambient
g efficiency ah air heater
N number of collectors
c collector and clear water
P capital cost of solar desalination system and Power cw cooling water
p pump da dry air
Pg saturation pressure (Pa) dehu dehumidification
PV photovoltaic
dw distilled water
Q_ in energy input to the desalination system from the solar g glass cover
systems (W) hu humidification
Q_ u useful thermal energy gain (W/m2) in input
Q_ T total heat input of the system (W)
max, m maximum
R ideal gas constant (kJ/kg K) out outlet
S entropy s surface and sun
SAH solar air heater
u useful
SFF sinking fund factor w water
SWH solar water heater wh water heater
T ambient temperature (K) v vapor
UL overall heat transfer coefficient for the collector
(W/m2 °C)

on the system performance by testing the system under various
real weather and operating conditions. Besides, they studied the
main parameters affecting the solar collector efficiency and HDH
unit productivity. System productivity value were measured as
9 L per m2 by increasing water flow rate up to 5 L/min and the
bed thickness up to 40 cm [4]. El-Shazly et al. investigated the
characteristic effects of pulsed water flow on solar HDH systems
performance, and system productivity was measured as between
1.3 and 1.9 L/m2 h [5]. Elminshawy et al. investigated the effects
of using the environmental conditions, external reflector and an
induced atmospheric air in order to increase the HDH system’s effi-
ciency. They calculated the cost of fresh water produced as
0.035 USD/L and obtained system efficiency values up to 0.77 [6].
Dai and Zhang, studied the effects of feed water flow rate, water
temperature and air flow rate on performance of the solar HDH
systems. They found an optimum rotational speed of fan corre-
sponding to an optimum air mass flow rate in order to maximize
the thermal efficiency and productivity. They calculated a thermal
efficiency higher than 80% [7]. Yıldırım and Solmusß, theoretically
investigated the solar HDH for various operating parameters and
developed a mathematical system model. They calculated daily
and annual yield of the system with various configurations as;
water heating only, air heating only, and water–air heating [8].
Nafey et al. investigated the solar HDH systems under various envi-
ronmental and experimental conditions theoretically and experi-
mentally. They concluded that air and cooling water flow rates
14 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19

and solar radiation affect the system productivity significantly [9].
Amer et al. investigated the effects of application parameters on
characteristics of a solar HDH desalination system theoretically
and experimentally. They found that maximum productivity is
5.8 L/h under 85 °C inlet water temperature and 2.8 kg/min water
mass flow rate conditions [10]. Yanniotis and Xerodemas, tested
tubular spray humidifier and a pad humidifier in HDH systems.
They determined that the evaporation rate of the spray humidifier
is equal to a pad humidifier with a thickness of about 100 mm.
They also determined that the 300 mm thickness pad humidifier
provides significantly higher evaporation rates than spray humid-
ifier at high air to water flow rate ratios [11].
In this study, a novel HDH solar desalination system is tested
under real weather and operating conditions in Karabuk, Turkey.
Experimental system is designed to use only solar energy with col-
lectors (for thermal energy) and Photovoltaic (PV) system (for elec-
trical energy). Energy-exergy analyses of the system are done using
data from the experimental studies performed for 6 days under
real and similar environmental conditions. Besides, economic and
enviro-economic analyses of the system are made to find out the
economic and environmental effects of the system.
2. Experimental setup and theoretical analysis of the system
and SWH, PV panel, humidifier and dehumidifier units, and proper
measurement methods are used to minimize the measurement
errors. Table 3 gives the specifications of measurement apparatus
used in the study.
At the morning hours, since the water in the SWH isn’t warm
enough, humidification of the water is reused in the system. When
the water temperature in system increases, used water is drained
and salt water from the outside is inserted to the system. Every
day the water inside the system is drained and refilled by salty
water.
2.2. Theoretical analysis of solar HDH system
Warm and dry air which is heated by flat plate air collector by
taking ambient air into the H unit and then the air gains vapor from
sprayed salt water. A pipe carries the humid air to the DH chamber
where cold salt water goes through condenser which takes heat
from incoming humid air. On the other hand, humidity gain capac-
ity of the air was increased by heating salty water with a SWH.
Electrical power required by the HDH system was provided by a
PV panel coupled to the system (Fig. 2). HDH system is a preferred
desalination process for being safe and low cost [12].
Theoretical studies are carried out in three stages; energy,
exergy and economic, enviro-economic analyses.

2.1. Experimental setup 2.2.1. Energy analysis

Energy analysis of HDH system was made by using the method
The experiments with solar powered HDH system are con- used by Yıldırım and Solmusß [8]. In order to simplify the calcula-
ducted in Karabuk city (longitude: 32°370 E, latitude: 41°120 N) in tions of the model following assumptions are made.
July 2015 for six days from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and data for a
day with medium measurement data is used for the calculations.  Solar radiation, wind speed, and relative humidity and temper-
Monthly mean meteorological data for Karabuk is taken from Local ature of the ambient air are constant at each instant through an
Meteorology Directorate and given in Table 1. In the experimental hour.
study, solar radiation, ambient temperature and humidity and  There is no air leakage from the system, when air passes
water and air temperature values are measured from different through the solar air heater, humidifier and dehumidifier.
points of the system and all measurements are recorded by a com-  Cooling water temperature is constant during the operation.
puter during the experiments. The fresh water is taken to the stor-  Water temperature at the inlet of the solar water heater is equal
age tanks and desalinated water mass per hour are measured. to that at the exit of the storage tank.
Humidifier and dehumidifier units are manufactured by using
1 mm thickness steel sheet and extruded polystyrene were used Dehumidifier,
for its insulation. Polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride pipes are
used for water and air circulation are insulated with thermoflex _ a ðha6  ha7 Þ ¼ m
m _ cw cpw ðT9  T8 Þ  m
_ dw cpw T10 ð1Þ
material. Two sprays and 10 cm thickness cellulosic pad are used
for humidification inside the H unit. The DH unit is a finned heat Humidifier energy balance is,
exchanger inside a cabinet in which the water is being passed.
_ w cpm ðT4  T5 Þ ¼ m
m _ a ðha6  ha2 Þ ð2Þ
Experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1 and system components
used in this study are given in Table 2. The moisture content of the air at SAH inlet can be calculated as
Prepared experimental setup consists of components with dif- [13];
ferent structure and operating principles such as flat plate SAH,
0:622uPg
W1 ¼ ð3Þ
P  u Pg
Table 1
Meteorological data for Karabuk. where Pg is the vapor saturation pressure and it is found as,

Month Solar Sunshine The number of Ambient Pg ¼ 2:7  109 T5 þ 2:8  107 T4 þ 2:7  105 T3 þ 0:0014T2
radiation duration (h) clear days (Day) temperature
(W/m2) (°C) þ 0:044T þ 0:61 ð4Þ
1 207.71 3.37 2.4 3.73 where hfg is the saturated water vapor’s enthalpy and can be calcu-
2 523.04 4.34 3.2 4.5
lated as;
3 603.20 5.62 3.7 7.43
4 653.27 6.72 4.4 12.57 hfg ¼ 9:3  106 T3  1:9  105 T2 þ 1:8T þ 2500 ð5Þ
5 722.01 7.95 6.9 17.25
6 624.74 9.7 9.7 20.54 Humidity and enthalpy of saturated air are functions of air tem-
7 572.78 10.51 12.8 24.3
perature and can be calculated as;
8 547.59 9.77 13.2 23.96
9 546.73 7.81 11.2 19.23
w ¼ 7:7  107 T3  1:95  105 T2 þ 0:00071T þ 0:002 ð6Þ
10 507.16 5.58 7.3 14.37
11 410.07 4.17 5.3 7.88
12 415.54 2.96 2.8 4.26 ha ¼ 2:82  105 T4  0:00106T3 þ 0:00615T2 þ 1:32T þ 10:5 ð7Þ
 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19 15

Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

The difference of moisture contents of DH unit inlet and outlet _c¼m

m _ a ðw3  w4 Þ ð8Þ
is used to calculate mass flow rate of produced clean water leaving
dehumidifier.
2.2.2. System performance
Table 2 There are many parameters to determine the thermal efficiency
Components used in the experimental setup. of desalination unit’s in terms of volume of water produced per
consumed energy. The most commonly used performance indica-
Component Designed capacity
tors for desalination systems are; the gained output ratio (GOR),
SAH area 1.7 m2
performance ratio and system efficiency.
Solar water heater (SWH) area 1.7 m2
HDH unit 550  700  1100 mm
Spray nozzle 0.4 mm 2.2.2.1. Gained output ratio. The gained output ratio (GOR) is used
Hot seawater tank 50 L for describing the effectiveness of water production of thermal
Desalinated water tank 5L
desalination process which is also defined as an energy ratio or a
PV panel 130 W (0.94 m2)
Circulation pump 38 W mass ratio. GOR is calculated by Eq. (9) [13].
Scroll fan 54 W
_ ew L
m
GOR ¼ ð9Þ
Q_ in
Table 3
Technical description of measurement devices.
where ‘‘Q_ in ” is the energy input to the desalination system from the
Measurement devices Range Accuracy solar systems, ‘‘L” is latent heat of vaporization (J/kg), ‘‘m _ ew ” is
Pyranometer (3120) 0–2000 W/m2 ±3% hourly yield/output of solar HDH system (kg/h).
Thermocouple (K type) 0–200 °C ±0.1 °C
Temperature and humidity sensor (Testo 435) 20 to 70 °C ±0.3 °C
0–100% RH ±2% RH
2.2.2.2. Overall system efficiency. The energy required for distilled
Air flow meter (Testo 435) 0.0–20 m/s ±4% water production depends on latent heat of vaporization and can
Data acquisition system (Adam 4019+) – – be written as [1];

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

16 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19

 
_ ew L
Edw ¼ m ð10Þ Ta þ 273
E_ vSAH ¼ Q_ u;ah 1  ð21Þ
T2 þ 273
The performance of an HDH desalination system which also
means the energy efficiency is calculated as latent heat of evapora- Useful exergy of air heater collectors is found by Eq. (22) [24].
tion of distilled water divided by heat input to the system:
Q u;ah ¼ AFR IðsaÞ  FR UL ðT2  Ta Þ ð22Þ
m_ L
g ¼ ew ð11Þ Exergy production by the PV panel is [25];
QT
where Q T is total energy input (from PV, water and air heater) [14– E_ vPV;electrical ¼ Vm Im ¼ Pmax ð23Þ
16]. Taking only the humidifier-dehumidifier unit of the system as
the control volume, exergy input from the solar collectors and PV
2.2.3. Exergy analysis panel can be calculated by Eq. (24).
Exergy defines the quality of energy, which means ability of  
Ta þ 273
energy to do work, and it can be destroyed in thermal systems. E_ vin;HDH ¼ Vm Im þ Q_ u;wh 1 
Exergy balance equation of a control volume can be found by Eq. T4 þ 273
 
(12) [17,18]. T þ 273
þ Q_ u;ah 1 
a
X X X ð24Þ
T2 þ 273
E_ vin  E_ vout ¼ E_ vdest ð12Þ
Exergy efficiency of the humidifier-dehumidifier unit of the sys-
Exergy efficiency of solar HDH system is calculated by dividing
tem becomes;
the product exergy to the exergy input [15,19].
E_ vproduct
E_ vproduct E_ v gEX;HDH ¼
gEX ¼
_Ev
¼ 1  dest ð13Þ E_ v
in E_ v in
in
h  i
_ ew
m
L 1  TTwa þ273
ð3600 s h1 Þ þ273
Hourly exergy output of the solar HDH system is [19]; ¼     ð25Þ
 
_ ew
m Ta þ 273
 Vm Im þ Q_ u;wh 1  TT4a þ273
þ273
þ Q_ u;ah 1  TT2a þ273
þ273
E_ vproduct ¼ L 1  ð14Þ
1
ð3600 s h Þ Tw þ 273

where m _ ew is hourly product of solar HDH (kg/h), L is the latent heat 2.2.4. Economic and enviro-economic analyses
of vaporization (J/kg), Ta is the ambient temperature (°C) and Tw is In desalination applications, the cost of 1 L distillate is calcu-
the water temperature (°C). lated by economic analysis. Besides, enviro-economic analysis is
HDH system used in the study produce desalinated water from an administrative approach used to reduce the carbon emissions
sea water using solar energy received by flat plate collectors and PV by encouraging the use of renewable energy.
panel, and the exergy input of this system can be expressed as; In solar desalination systems, sinking fund factor (SFF), annual
salvage value (ASV), annual maintenance cost (AMC), and annual
E_ vin ¼ m
_ sw Evsw þ E_ vsun;SWH þ E_ vsun;SAH þ E_ vsun;PV ð15Þ interest rate (i) must be taken into account as parameters besides
capital cost (P). In this respect, capital recovery factor (CRF) can be
The exergy is lost through the heat loss to the outside and brine
calculated as the i and the service of life of the system as years (n)
discharge from HDH system. Assuming that the salt water is at
(Eq. (26)) [26,27];
thermodynamic dead state (m _ sw Evsw ¼ 0) the exergy efficiency
n
can be found as [20]; ið1 þ iÞ
CRF ¼ n ð26Þ
_ ew Evew ð1 þ iÞ  1
m
gEX ¼ ð16Þ
_ sw Evsw þ E_ vsun;SWH
m þ E_ v sun;SWH þ E_ vsun;PV Fixed annual cost (FAC) is then;

Since the energy required for the pump and the fan is provided FAC ¼ PðCRFÞ ð27Þ
by PV panel, the exergy input of PV panel is included to the calcu- P can be calculated by summing up the costs of used materials
lation instead of individual exergy analysis for the pump and fan. such as; sprays, cellulosic pad, piping, steel sheet, paint, collectors,
Therefore, the total exergy efficiency as a whole is [21]; fan and circulation pump, etc. as well as labor cost.
_ ew Evew
m Salvage value (S) is taken as one-fifth of the P.
gEXT ¼ _ ð17Þ
Evsun;SWH þ E_ vsun;SAH þ E_ vsun;PV S ¼ 0:2P ð28Þ

Exergy input of solar system is solar radiation intensity [15,22]. SFF and ASV can be expressed as [28]:
"   4 # i
4 Ta þ 273 1 Ta þ 273 SFF ¼ ð29Þ
E_ vsun ¼ AIðtÞ 1  þ ð18Þ n
ð1 þ iÞ  1
3 Ts þ 273 3 Ts þ 273

Exergy production by the water heater collector, [23]. ASV ¼ ðSFFÞS ð30Þ
 
Ta þ 273 AMC of the system includes; collecting the fresh water, cleaning
E_ vSWH ¼ Q_ u;wh 1  ð19Þ the unit. Here, 15% of the FAC is assumed as AMC;
T4 þ 273
Useful exergy of water heater collectors is found by Eq. (20) AMC ¼ 0:15ðFACÞ ð31Þ
[24]. Then the annual cost (AC) is:
Q u;wh ¼ AFR IðsaÞ  FR UL ðT4  Ta Þ ð20Þ AC ¼ FAC þ AMC þ ASV ð32Þ
Exergy production by the air heater collector is; [23]. Finally, the cost of fresh water per liter can be calculated as:
 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19 17

AC
CPL ¼ ð33Þ
M
where M is the average annual yield of the solar desalination
system.
Enviro-economic analysis is done by taking the cost of carbon
emission which is around 960 g per kW h of energy. However, it
turns to be 2 kg when the transmission losses (40%) and the distri-
bution losses (20%) are included to the cost estimation. The CO2
emissions mitigation per year from the solar desalination system
(/CO2 ) is given by [29],

wCO2  overalexergy
/CO2 ¼ ð34Þ
1000
where wCO2 is the mean CO2 emission (2 kg CO2/kW h) when coal is Fig. 4. Temporal variations of relative humidity and temperature at inlet and outlet
used for electricity generation. International carbon price (zCO2 ) is of humidifier.
between 13 $/tCO2 and 16 $/tCO2 for the low and high pledge sce-
nario. Therefore, the average value of 14.5 $/tCO2 is taken for the
Table 4
enviro-economic analysis [30]. The environmental cost (ZCO2 ) is Variation of hourly temperature and relative humidity.
obtained by using equation given by Rajoria et al. [31];
Hour Tamb. Uamb. Tac,o Uac,o Th,o Uh,o Tw Udh,o
ZCO2 ¼ zCO2  /CO2 ð35Þ (°C) (%) (°C) (%) (°C) (%) (°C) (%)
10:00 35.2 33 65.1 7.5 27.7 99 37.2 59.5
11:00 36.2 31 87.1 3 32.1 99 42.5 55
12:00 37.6 21 106.7 1.1 36.2 99 48.5 54.4
3. Results and discussion
13:00 37 21 110.2 0.9 41.6 99 53.6 54.6
14:00 37.1 26 108 1.2 47.1 99 57.4 54.7
The behavior of a one-stage HDH system is investigated exper- 15:00 34.8 38 105.2 1.8 50.1 99 58.5 55.1
imentally and theoretically under real environmental conditions. 16:00 31.1 55 101.5 2.5 52.7 99 57.8 55.5
There is no study in the literature that gives a complete analysis 17:00 28.4 59 86 3.8 47.9 99 53.8 55.5
18:00 28.2 59 62.4 8.6 42.3 99 45.4 77.5
of a HDH system, using pad and spray humidifying unit, including
energy, exergy, economic and enviro-economic analyses. For these
investigations, the tests are performed to determine the influence
of the inlet and outlet temperatures of water and air, mass flow
rates of the collectors, humidifier and dehumidifier, and the solar
irradiation, relative humidity of the system air, and ambient air
temperature and relative humidity on the HDH yield of the system.
The tests are conducted for 9 h for 6 days under very similar ambi-
ent conditions as ambient temperature and the solar radiation.
Fig. 3 shows the temperatures variations at the inlet and outlet
of SAH along with the incident solar radiation versus time. Fig-
ure shows that temperatures depend on solar radiation intensity.
As seen in Fig. 4, there is an inverse relationship between tem-
perature and relative humidity values of the air which comes from
the SAH and enters the humidifier unit. The warm and dry air
entering the humidifier is easily saturated by using spray and
pad humidifier together. Table 4 gives the hourly variations of rel-
ative humidity and temperature measured from various points of
the system during experiments.
Fig. 5. Hourly variation of production rate and solar radiation for solar HDH system.
The results of full day experiments from 9 am to 6 pm show that
the water and air temperatures inside the solar collectors does not
exceed 58.5 °C and 110.2 °C respectively. Air entering the SAH is
heated up to very high sensible temperatures and its relative
humidity is decreased as much as possible in order to maximize
the water vapor capacity.
Fig. 5 shows the production rates with the incident solar radia-
tion versus time. When the amount of solar energy falling onto the
system decreases near the sunset time, distillation process contin-
ues using the energy stored before. For this reason, the maximum
daily energy and exergy efficiencies are observed during this time.
The maximum amount of distilled water is produced while the
water temperature was maximum during the operation of the
system.
Fig. 6 shows the variation of the efficiency by the time. The rate
of fresh water production significantly increases after 2:00 pm
because of the energy stored in the system, and becomes maxi-
Fig. 3. Variations of temperature at inlet and outlet of SAH versus time. mum of 1117.3 g/h at 4:00 pm. Although the ambient temperature
18 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19

Fig. 7. Exergy efficiencies of SWH, SAH, PV panel and H-DH unit.

Fig. 6. Variation of the efficiency by the time.

Table 6
and solar radiation decreases after 3:00 pm, the rate of fresh water The results of cost analysis for the study.
production does not decrease with the same rate. HDH system Parameter Value Unit
gives the best production rate from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. GOR value
M 914.18 lt/m2
of the HDH system is obtained between 0.97 and 1. Low GOR value N 20
can be explained by inadequate recovery of the condensation heat I 0.10 %
from the drainage water. CRF 0.1174
P 732 $
Exergy efficiency of the HDH system components is calculated
FAC 85.98 $
here as the ratio of the desired exergy output to the exergy input. S 146.4
Table 5 gives daily exergy input, output and exergy efficiency val- SFF 0.0627
ues of the system components which changes from 0.028% to ASV 9.1859 $
1.867%. Exergy losses in SAH and SWH takes place through base AMC 12.8970 $
AC 89.6915 $
and side walls, and glass covers and it is inversely proportional
CPL 0.0981 $/L/m2
to ambient temperature and exergy loss of PV panel increases by wCO2 2 kg CO2/kW h
increasing ambient temperature as shown in Table 5 and Fig. 7. /CO2 0.1658 ton/annum
Temperature and humidity of air exhausted from dehumidifier zCO2 14.5 $/ton
effect both energy and exergy efficiencies. Therefore, the most crit- Z CO2 2.4041 $/annum
ical component of the HDH system is condenser which decreases
the temperature of humid air as much as possible to condense
the moisture in the air and increase the productivity. and the yearly exergy has been calculated as 178.505 kW h. Envi-
Fig. 7 shows the hourly exergy efficiencies of HDH components. ronmental cost is found to be 2.4041 $ per annum and 48.082 $
These values have changed throughout the experiments, as for 20 years which is the estimated life of the system.
expected. Exergy of the PV panel decreases during daytime as a The unit cost of desalination can be decreased by improving
results of increasing panel back surface temperature, depending energy efficiency, and using more durable materials and system
on the solar radiation and ambient temperature. Exergy of H and components. In the regions having more solar radiation, sunshine
DH units increases up to a maximum at times of decreasing ambi- duration and clear days the payback period of the HDH system
ent temperature and solar radiation due to the energy stored in would be shorter and provide more environmental benefits.
these units during daytime.
One of the most important indicators of the suitability of the 4. Conclusion
design and method in desalination systems is the economic analy-
sis of the system. Table 6 gives the estimated costs of components This study was made to understand and determined the perfor-
used in the HDH system. The main objective of manufacturing pro- mance of HDH systems. Some of the significant conclusions of the
cess and operation is to keep the costs minimum. On the other study are listed below;
hand, enviro-economic analysis (also known as environmental cost
analysis) identifies the options for reducing the environmental a. Overall energy and exergy efficiencies of HDH were calcu-
impact associated with the overall system. According to the long lated between 4.1–31.54% and 0.03–1.867% respectively.
term statistics there are 82.9 clear days in a year in Karabuk city

Table 5
Exergy results of the solar desalination system.

Time of day (Hour) E_ vin;SWH (W) E_ vp;SWH (W) E_ vin;SAH (W) E_ vp;SAH (W) E_ vin;PV (W) E_ vp;PV (W) E_ vproduct (W) gEx;AS (%)
10:00 1000.44 4.32 1000.44 39.21 559.07 96.87 0.72 0.028
11:00 131.457 17.01 1314.57 68.98 734.61 114.28 3.90 0.116
12:00 1540.44 32.88 1540.44 90.10 860.83 124.89 10.35 0.262
13:00 1594.54 48.82 1594.54 95.26 891.06 123.51 23.23 0.569
14:00 1600.33 55.22 1600.33 97.04 894.30 116.36 35.48 0.866
15:00 1512.31 56.76 1512.31 86.46 845.11 116.84 41.16 1.063
16:00 1256.36 52.02 1256.36 54.12 702.08 102.49 43.41 1.350
17:00 884.72 31.06 884.72 21.95 494.40 67.89 42.27 1.867
18:00 506.16 11.17 506.16 6.94 282.85 45.88 23.24 1.794
 E. Deniz, S. Çınar / Energy Conversion and Management 126 (2016) 12–19
b. The most efficient time period of HDH system is from
1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
c. The mean production rate of HDH system is 10.87 L/day.
Hourly pure water output of the HDH system is between
0.165 and 0.87 L.
d. Estimated cost of desalination by HDH system is around
0.0981 US$/L and decreases with increasing efficiency.
e. Environmental cost which is also called enviro-economic
parameter comes out to be 2.4041 $ per annum and it is esti-
mated as 24.041 $ for a service life of 10 years.
f. The unit productivity increases with the temperatures of
water and air entering the humidifier.
g. About 60% of world’s population is expected to have water
shortages in the near future and R&D studies on solar desali-
nation systems should be supported and promoted.
Further studies may include and focus on the following
subjects;
a. Dehumidifiers with different types and properties must be
examined for increasing condensation under various actual
conditions.
b. If PV panels were to be used for supplying electrical energy
for the experiments, they must be cooled down to avoid
decrease in energy and exergy efficiencies. Moreover, the
heat removed from the PV panels can be recovered to heat
process air and water.
c. Regional and/or global applicability of solar desalination sys-
tems should be assessed for both economy and production
rate using appropriate methods.
d. Many completed and ongoing efforts on improving energy
efficiency and productivity of the solar desalination systems
based on first law of thermodynamics do not include exergy
analysis which can be seen as a serious gap.
e. Especially, various desalination methods using industrial
waste heat should be developed.
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