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Performance evaluation of using evacuated tubes solar collector, perforated fins, and pebbles in a solar still – experimental study and CO2 mitigation analysis

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Abstract

The combination of various methods of increasing evaporation rate can highly impact the performance of solar desalination. This investigation aims to find the impact of using evacuated tubes solar collector, perforated fins, and pebbles on the performance enhancement of a solar still. Simultaneously six-evacuated-tube solar collector to raise the evaporation rate of the system, the perforated fins to increase the heat transfer surface between water and absorber, and the immersed pebbles stone in the water to keep the high water temperature at low solar radiation were considered. The hourly and cumulative distillate output (DO) values are presented separately for the daytime and nighttime to provide extensive insight. The results indicate that on a sample day from the six months of experiments, which was in February 2019, the time for DO peak shifts from 1 to 3 p.m. Moreover, the temperature values for MSS experience almost 43 ℃ jumps on the peak and almost 19 ℃ increase on average compared to CSS. Furthermore, the cumulative DO in the daytime reaches from 2.515 to 6.662 L, while during the nighttime, an increase from 0.057 to 0.872 L is observed. Additionally, during the six months, the average DO jumps from 2.88 to 7.03 L, which means a significant enhancement of 144.1%. Moreover, the costs per liter of MSS and CSS are 0.0051 and 0.0056 dollars per liter, respectively. The net amount of CO2 reduction of MSS was improved by about 2.44 times higher than CSS.

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Data availability

Data can be made available on request.

Abbreviations

Ab :

Area of the basin (m2)

Tw :

Water temperature (℃)

Ta :

Ambient temperature (℃)

Tci :

Inner glass cover temperature (℃)

V1:

The valve number one

V2:

The valve number two

V3:

The valve number three

Ta :

Ambient temperature

I:

Solar radiation (W.m−2)

i:

Interest rate (%)

\(\upeta\) :

Efficiency

M:

Productivity (L/m2)

\({\mathrm{\varphi }}_{{\mathrm{co}}_{2}}\) :

CO2 mitigation (tons)

\({\mathrm{Z}}_{{\mathrm{co}}_{2}}\) :

Enviroeconomic parameter ($)

AMC:

Annual maintenance cost ($)

ASV:

Annual salvage value ($)

CPL:

Cost per liter ($/L)

CRF:

Capital recovery factor

CSS:

Conventional solar still

FAC:

First annual cost

SFF:

Sinking fund factor

MSS:

Modified solar still

DO:

Distillate output (ml)

ET:

Evacuated tubes

SHS:

Sensible heat storage

UAP:

Uniform annual price ($)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Engineering College Patan, Patan, Gujarat, India

    Hitesh Panchal

  2. Lab of Optimization of Thermal Systems’ Installations, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Energy Division, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, P.O. Box: 19395-1999, No. 15-19, Pardis St., Mollasadra Ave, Vanak Sq, Tehran, 1999 143344, Iran

    Ali Sohani

  3. Resource Development Institute, Tra Vinh University, Tra Vinh, 940000, Vietnam

    Nguyen Van Nguyen

  4. Energy and Sustainable Development Research Center, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran

    Shahin Shoeibi

  5. School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA, 6027, Australia

    Mehdi Khiadani

  6. University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Pham Quang Huy

  7. Department of Planning, Design, Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Siamak Hoseinzadeh

  8. Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Abd Elnaby Kabeel

  9. School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology Vellore, 632014, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

    Saboor Shaik

  10. Low/Zero Carbon Energy Technologies Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Zihni Derin Campus, 53100, Rize, Turkey

    Erdem Cuce

Authors
  1. Hitesh Panchal
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  2. Ali Sohani
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  3. Nguyen Van Nguyen
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  4. Shahin Shoeibi
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  8. Abd Elnaby Kabeel
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  9. Saboor Shaik
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  10. Erdem Cuce
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Contributions

Hitesh Panchal: conceptualization, investigation, data curation, writing original draft, formal analysis, writing – review and editing.

Ali Sohani: conceptualization, writing original draft, formal analysis, writing – review and editing

Nguyen Van Nguyen: writing – original draft, formal analysis, writing – review and editing

Shahin Shoeibi: conceptualization, investigation, data curation, writing original draft, formal analysis, writing – review and editing

Mehdi Khiadani: conceptualization, resources, writing – review and editing

Pham Quang Huy: conceptualization, resources, writing – review and editing

Siamak Hoseinzadeh: conceptualization, performing experiments, formal analysis, writing – review and editing

Abd Elnaby Kabeel: conceptualization, performing experiments, formal analysis, writing – review and editing

Saboor Shaik: conceptualization, resources, writing – review and editing

Erdem Cuce: conceptualization, resources, writing – review and editing

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shahin Shoeibi.

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Panchal, H., Sohani, A., Van Nguyen, N. et al. Performance evaluation of using evacuated tubes solar collector, perforated fins, and pebbles in a solar still – experimental study and CO2 mitigation analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 11769–11784 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22809-z

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