3E–Assessment and sustainability analysis in a single-slope solar still with equally divided basins
摘要
Countries of the world are focusing on sustainable, accessible and economical path of producing freshwater as the utilization of it is tremendously increasing due to industrialization. Solar stills are one of the methods that is widely studied and used technology for production of freshwater. The efficiency of these system can be improved with minimal cost capital by using simple methods and available resources. The current research investigates the productivity of distilled water at different water depths of solar still, such as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 cm, in an equally divided basin. The operational effectiveness of single-slope solar stills was examined in this study (solar still without division, type I) vs two equally spaced basins compared (solar still with division, type II) in which both the stills observer was coated with a mixture of black paint and chlorophyll pigment. The results showed that at a minimum depth of 2 cm, type II had daily productivity of 5.81 kg m–2 and an evaporative heat transfer coefficient of 55.2 W m–2K, which is 24.6% and 25% greater than type I. The highest, median, and everyday efficacy of type II was still 67.3%, 46.3%, and 51.4%, respectively, at a water level of 2 cm. The exergy efficiency decreased from 5.1 to 1.9% and 6.62 to 2.45%, respectively, as the water depth increased for type I and II from 2 to 7 cm. According to economic analysis, type II freshwater costs 19.5% less than type I freshwater, with an amortization period of 17 days. Type II had lower payback period at different water depths than type I. A solar still with two equally divided basins shows the possibility for performance enhancement with little initial outlay while increasing productivity and lowering freshwater expenses.