Abstract
The lack of fresh water, especially for the land-locked & arid regions, is becoming a significant barrier to the sustainable development of humanity. This has generated an urgent need to explore the solar-driven atmospheric water generation (S-AWG) technologies with high water yield. This research experimentally compares the performance of silica gel and molecular sieve on a novel S-AWG system. 25 kg of each desiccant material is used in a packed desiccant bed structure. In the nocturnal phase, adsorption is performed followed by regeneration during the day using hot air generated from evacuated tube solar air heater (ET-SAH). An air-to-air heat exchanger is employed for condensing the water vapors released in the process air after the desiccant bed regeneration. The water generated from silica gel is 1790 ml with energy & exergy efficiency of 23.14% & 10.43%, respectively. From the molecular sieve, 350 ml of water is generated with energy & exergy efficiency of 21.74% & 9.58%, respectively. The economic analysis of the system reveals that the cost of water generated from silica gel is 0.21 $/L, while from molecular sieve is 1.21 $/L. Water testing reports of the produced water using both the desiccant materials infers that it is drinkable.
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