New graphite fins efficacy on conical solar distiller performance: Experimental study with thermal, exergy, economic, and sustainability analysis

Abstract

The pressing issue of freshwater scarcity in remote areas has stimulated the development of the performance of solar distillers as a means of desalinating saltwater. This was done by incorporating efficacy new graphite fins with basin of the conical solar distiller. The new graphite fins are characterized by their high thermal properties, so they represent thermal storage materials and are used to increase the surface area to absorb solar radiation and transfer heat. To get the optimal height of new graphite fins that achieve highest freshwater production, four different heights 1, 2, 3, and 4 cm of the new efficacy graphite fins were studied. To achieve this, three conical distillers were built with the same dimensions, the first is a classical conical distiller (CCD), and the second and third are the modified conical distiller with graphite fins (MCD-GF). The results presented that incorporating the new efficacy graphite fins that have 3 cm height with the basin of conical solar distiller represents a good choice, that causes improves the freshwater production, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and sustainability index by 97.37, 94.37, 574.1, and 18.6 % as compared to CCD. In addition, it reduces the cost of producing fresh water by 48.26 %.