Abstract
Water-energy nexus is a crucial and challenging concern that addressing it is noteworthy for the future of human beings. In addition, freshwater production is a highly energy-intensive procedure. Therefore, developing a suitable solution for this problem is of importance. In the present scenario, solar energy is one of the suitable options for desalination because solar energy is available at a low cost, is clean for the environment, and is widely available. Generally, solar collectors such as flat plate collectors (FPC) and evacuated tube collectors were experimented for desalination applications. This work presents an experimental investigation of a single-stage hybrid (ETC-CPC) groundwater solar desalination system. A compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is placed below the evacuated tube collector (ETC) for collecting solar radiations to transfer heat to evacuated tubes which improves performance in the case of different weather conditions of Pune city in India. Experimental results show that the hybrid solar groundwater desalination system, by maintaining the optimum distance of 20 mm between ETC and CPC with Mylar as the reflecting material, could offer a drinking water production rate of up to 3.4 l/(m2h)/day. However, the proposed single-stage hybrid (ETC+CPC) groundwater solar desalination system with aluminum foil as a reflecting material could generate 1.9 liters of soft water per day. Further, the use of Mylar as a reflecting material could generate 3.5 liters of soft water per day.
Highlights
The current demand for solar energy is continuously increasing for electricity generation and other useful work in the world
This paper presents the investigation for four different materials, viz., aluminum foil, Mylar, chrome vinyl silver wrap, and white paint, as reflecting material used over a compound parabolic concentrator to enhance the rate of heat transfer
Continuous monitoring of the hourly change of the measured parameters such as the ambient temperature, outside evacuated tube temperature, outlet water temperature, temperature of the CPC along with the intensity of the solar radiation, wind velocity, and rate of the generation of freshwater of one of the experiments since May 2018 with chrome mirror silver vinyl wrap of CPC is shown in Table 4.Figure 8 shows the effect of the rate of soft water generation and the intensity of solar radiation when mirror silver vinyl material was wrapped on the compound parabolic concentrator
Summary
The current demand for solar energy is continuously increasing for electricity generation and other useful work in the world. Cao et al [39] had conducted an experimental study of the desalination system at both the humidification and dehumidification phases which are combined with chimneys whereas Murali et al [40,41,42] had worked on solar still productivity enhancement by PCM and made a serious investigation on the performance of a solar aluminum can air heater in the case of latent heat storage and in the absence of latent heat storage. They argued that a phase change material (PCM) is required for solar still productivity improvement. Effects of few parameters such as material, the intensity of the solar radiation, and distance between ETC and CPC on the production rate are thoroughly inspected
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