Enhanced performance of solar diffusion driven desalination

Fadi Alnaimat, James F. Klausner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study concerns an improvement in the solar diffusion driven desalination process under dynamic operating conditions for decentralized water production. The utilization of a heat exchanger for the solar diffusion driven desalination (DDD) process to recuperate the latent heat of condensation has been examined. It is found that the recuperated latent heat is best used for preheating the air inlet to the evaporator. Improvements in the system performance are achieved by increasing fresh water production by 30% for the solar DDD with a 0.75 effectiveness in the integrated heat exchanger. A theoretical model is implemented for analyzing the integrated desalination system, and a numerical assessment of the system performance for different operating conditions is presented. It is found that the installation of a heat exchanger for heat recovery in the air stream prior to entering the direct contact condenser increases the water production rate and reduces the specific energy consumption. It is concluded that the delayed operating mode for the solar DDD with an integrated heat exchanger is the best operating mode.

Original languageEnglish
Article number041001
JournalJournal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications
Volume5
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 27 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Condensation
  • Desalination
  • Evaporation
  • HDH
  • Renewable energy
  • Solar energy
  • Transient

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Engineering(all)
  • Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Enhanced performance of solar diffusion driven desalination'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this