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An experimental investigation of a water desalination unit using different microparticle-coated absorber plate: yield, thermal, economic, and environmental assessments

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Abstract

This study aims to augment the performance of a solar desalination unit. To experimental examine this idea, a modified solar still with three different microparticles doped in black paint-coated absorber were designed, fabricated, and tested in Jaipur, India. Three different microparticles such as copper, aluminum, and tin with particle size of 50–80 μm with weight concentration of 10% were doped in black paint and then coated on the absorber of solar still. The coated absorber of solar still were compared with the conventional solar still without any microparticle coating to obtain the effect of different coating materials on the water productivity, thermal performance, economic, and environment-economics analysis of solar still. The result showed that under the water depth of 1 cm, coating of copper, aluminum, and tin on absorber augmented the full-day water yield by 33.13, 22.18, and 11.53%, compared to conventional solar still without any coating. In addition, full-day energy and exergy efficiency of solar still with copper-coated absorber exhibited maximum values compared to all other solar stills, owing to the higher thermal conductivity and excellent solar-thermal conversion behaviors of copper. The cost of water per liter estimated through economic analysis was found to be US $ 0.0074 for conventional solar still, which was significantly reduced to US $ 0.0066 in the case of solar still with copper-coated absorber along with the payback time of 2.7 months. The environment-economic assessment estimated that solar still with copper-coated absorber plate has reduced the 13.19 tons of CO2 emission. It is concluded that augmented heat transfer rate from water basin to inner glass surface through utilization of microparticle coating would pave a pathway to develop energy-efficient low-cost solar-based desalination system.

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Abbreviations

Ass :

Basin area (m2)

Hfg :

Latent heat of vaporization (J kg-1)

hc,b-bw :

Heat transfer coefficient from basin absorber plate and water (W m-2 K-1)

hcg-sky :

Convective heat transfer coefficient from outer glass to sky (W m-2 K-1)

hcbw-ig :

Convective heat transfer coefficient from basin to inner glass (W m-2 K-1)

hrbw-ig :

Radiative heat transfer coefficient from basin to inner glass (W m-2 K-1)

hebw-ig :

Evaporative heat transfer coefficient from basin to inner glass (W m-2 K-1)

mss :

Water productivity (kg)

NM,CO2 :

Net CO2 mitigation (tons)

It :

Solar radiation (W m-2)

T1 :

Upper glass cover temperature (°C)

T2 :

Lower glass cover temperature (°C)

T3 :

Basin water temperature (°C)

T4 :

Absorber plate temperature (°C)

T5 :

Ambient air temperature (°C)

TS :

Sun temperature (°C)

Tsky :

Sky temperature (°C)

ϵeff :

Effective emissivity

ϵemb :

Embodiment energy (kWh)

ϵout :

Yearly energy output (kWh)

ϵx,b-bw :

Exergy destruction between basin and water (W m−2)

ϵx,cbw-ig :

Exergy destruction due to convection (W m−2)

ϵx,ebw-ig :

Exergy destruction due to evaporation (W m−2)

ϵx,inp :

Input exergy

ϵx,out :

Output exergy

ϵx,rbw-ig :

Exergy destruction due to radiation (W m−2)

ϵxt, bw-g :

Total exergy destruction between basin water and glass cover (W m−2)

σ:

Stefan–Boltzmann constant (5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4)

ηe :

Energy efficiency

ηexe :

Exergy efficiency

CSS:

Conventional solar still

CCP:

Carbon credit produced

CPL:

Cost per liter

LS:

Lifespan

NPBT:

Net payback time

SS-Al:

Solar still using aluminum microparticle-coated absorber plate

SS-Cu:

Solar still using copper microparticle-coated absorber plate

SS-Sn:

Solar still using tin microparticle-coated absorber plate

SSs:

Solar stills

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, KPR Institute Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Amrit Kumar Thakur & Ravishankar Sathyamurthy

  2. Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt

    Swellam Wafa Sharshir

  3. Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Abd Elnaby Kabeel

  4. Faculty of Engineering, Delta University for Science and Technology, Gamasa, Egypt

    Abd Elnaby Kabeel

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600048, India

    Athikesavan Muthu Manokar

  6. Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Machinery Transients (Wuhan University), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Wensheng Zhao

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  1. Amrit Kumar Thakur
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  2. Ravishankar Sathyamurthy
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  3. Swellam Wafa Sharshir
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  4. Abd Elnaby Kabeel
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  5. Athikesavan Muthu Manokar
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  6. Wensheng Zhao
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Contributions

Amrit Kumar Thakur: conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing); Ravishankar Sathyamurthy: conceptualization, resources, data curation, writing (original draft), writing (review and editing), Swellam Wafa Sharshir: formal analysis, data curation, writing (review and editing); Abd Elnaby Kabeel: data curation, writing (review and editing); Athikesavan Muthu Manokar: data curation, writing (review and editing); Wensheng Zhao: data curation, writing (review and editing).

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Correspondence to Amrit Kumar Thakur or Ravishankar Sathyamurthy.

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Thakur, A.K., Sathyamurthy, R., Sharshir, S.W. et al. An experimental investigation of a water desalination unit using different microparticle-coated absorber plate: yield, thermal, economic, and environmental assessments. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 37371–37386 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12837-6

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