Direct and indirect solar–powered desalination processes loaded with nanoparticles: A review

Abstract

As a great attention has been received by the application of the ‘nano’ technology in several fields, many passive methods have been considerably improved. For instance, the emergence of nanotechnology might help alleviate water issues by solving the technical challenges that removing viruses, bacteria etc. and can reduce purification processes costs. The key aim of this paper is to distill the recent developments of nanoparticles–based solar–powered desalination processes. The previous review article conducted by Bait and Si–Ameur [11] has tracked the useful utilization of nanostructures in different solar distillation configurations. Therefore, it has been observed that it is worthy to keep tracking closely the current status of studies developed on the same issue in question. In fact, the research has also included the progress of employing this category of particles in indirect solar desalination processes. On the other hand, the study will focus in parallel on the role of proposed design amendments and its impact on the solar water desalting unit performance. Through the reviewed publications, further investigations are needed to address some critical issues, such as parameters related to nanofluids, i.e., shape and size of the nanoparticle. The economic, enviro–economic and exergo–economic aspects of nanomaterials loaded solar desalination systems are worthy to be analyzed. Also, there seems a lack of interest in study of nanoparticles–based indirect desalination plants assisted by solar energy. Moreover, this research is an opportunity to include other original scientific articles missed in the previous version.