Water production enhancement from the air moisture using nanofluids-experimental investigation and exergo-enviroeconomic analysis

Abstract

Nowadays, the expansion of communities and population growth has further highlighted the need for clean water. To solve this problem, various methods have been proposed. Water extraction from the air moisture is of these methods which involve cooling the air to its dew point in which the moisture transforms from the gas to the liquid phase. In the present study, a device consisting of a refrigeration cycle and a moisture distillation cycle was designed to provide pure water from the air moisture. Additionally, it was tried to enhance the system performance by dispersing nanoparticles such as Cu and Al2O3 into the working fluid of the heat exchanger. In this study, the influence of various parameters (including inlet air velocity and ambient humidity) on the performance of the system was investigated. Finally, an exergo-enviroeconomic analysis was performed in terms of water production and cost. Based on the results, with increasing the air humidity from 40% to 60%, the amount of water production of the system raised from 0.5 to 1.8 cc/min. It was also observed that dispersion of Cu and Al2O3 nanoparticles enhanced the water production by around 43% and 29%, respectively. Moreover, an increment in inlet air velocity reduced the water production; while increasing the air humidity had a constructive effect on the system performance. The economic analysis indicated that the water production during a year increased by about 42% upon using Cu nanofluid as the working fluid of the distillation cycle which declined the water production cost by 32%.