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Energy, exergy, environmental, and economic analysis of natural and forced cooling of solar still with porous media

Research Authors
Hamdy Hassan , Mohamed S. Yousef, M. Salem Ahmed , Mohamed Fathy
Research Date
Research Year
2020
Research Journal
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Research Publisher
Springer
Research Vol
27
Research_Pages
38221–38240
Research Abstract

The performance of single slope solar still with an enhanced condenser at different saline water mediums in the basin is studied and assessed based on productivity, energy, exergy, economic, and enviroeconomic methodologies. Six solar still configurations are
considered: conventional solar still (CSS); modified solar still (MSS) which is a still with heat sink condenser; MSS having an umbrella (MSS + U); MSS with forced-air cooling (MSS + FA); MSS with forced-water cooling (MSS + FW); and finally, MSS with forced water cooling and contains sand in the basin (MSS + FW + SD). Experiments are conducted under hot and cold climate conditions of Sohag city, Egypt. The results indicate that the MSS + FW + SD has a maximum daily yield of 5.37 kg/m2 in summer and 2.74 kg/m2 in winter with an increase of 36% in summer and 26% in winter compared with CSS. It was found that the maximum increase of the energy and exergy efficiency compared with CSS is achieved in the case of MSS + FW + SD of 39% and 33%, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum and minimum cost of freshwater is achieved in cases of MSS + U and MSS + FW + SD, respectively. Finally, among all studied systems, MSS + FW + SD achieves the best performance based on the exergoeconomic approach.