Evaluation of solar energy transmission and heat-mass transfer in a floating solar concentrated distillation configuration

Abstract

The solar energy transmission and heat-mass transfer play significant roles in affecting the performance of a solar concentrated distillation device. This paper aims to evaluate the solar energy transmission and heat-mass transfer processes based on a novel floating solar concentrated distillation configuration, providing a comprehensive energy-mass analysis for improving and forecasting the system performance. Firstly, the impact of surface optical parameters and incidence angles on the solar energy transmission process has been quantitatively analyzed by the optical simulation. Then, the heat convection and heat-mass transfer relationships are obtained through the thermodynamic model and experimental results. Experimental results show that the freshwater yield is 16.2 g/h under the steady irradiance of 800 W/m2, while the theoretical yield is 15.24 g/h with a deviation < 6% compared with the experimental value. In the outdoor condition, the total yields of experimental and theoretical values are 134 g and 134.05 g, respectively. The average deviation of the 30-minute yield is 19.4% and the total yield deviation is 0.04%, proving the accuracy of obtained relationships in predicting the water yield under the actual weather. This paper provides essential theoretical support for predicting and improving the performance of direct solar-concentrating desalination systems of different scales.