A comprehensive study to find the optimal fraction of nanoparticle coated at the interface of solar desalination absorbers: 5E and GHGs analysis in different seasons

In recent years utilizing nanoparticles in black paint (nano-paint) of solar desalination absorbers has become a topic growing interest. However, in most of studies, only the effect of using different types of nanoparticles brought into the spotlight, while in those limited studies that discussed on optimum concentration of nanoparticles, the results were controversial and not conclusive. Herein, an experimental study to find the optimum concentration of nanoparticles (silver, 1–5%) in solar absorbers in summer, spring and autumn with/without reflectors was conducted. To find the optimum concentration, performance of the systems from different viewpoints including energetic, exergetic, economic, productivity, exergoeconomic, energy-matrices, and environmental (amount of CO₂/SO₂/NO emission/reduction) analysis for each season and thorough its lifetime was examined thoroughly. Ascribe the highly variable of parameters; two Matlab codes have been developed to precisely calculate the economic and exergoeconomic parameters for different scenarios. The results showed that increasing the nanoparticle concentration to 5% from an economic viewpoint was reasonable just in summer, while for autumn and spring, 2.5% was optimum. The same was valid for productivity and exergy analysis. Importantly, the embodied energy of nanoparticles for the first time considered in calculation to obtain more accurate results in terms of environmental analysis and energy-matrices. Finally, it was concluded that even though using 5% nanoparticle in limited cases led to better results, the 2.5% concentration with reflector was optimum for all seasons and through the lifetime. This work would be a cornerstone for future researches in the context of using nano-paint in solar absorbers.