Abstract
This paper tackles an optimization approach in order to boost the fresh water production of a new design of a solar still which is located at Sfax engineering national school in Tunisia. This optimization approach is based upon the above mentioned design’s improvement by coupling the conventional solar still into at a condenser, solar air and water collector and humidifier. This new concept of a distiller solar still using humidification- dehumidification processes (HD) is exploited for the desalination purpose. As a result of this work, the humidification- dehumidification processes have an essential effect in improving the solar still performance. Performance has been predicted theoretically in terms of water and inner glass cover temperatures, the inlet temperature of air and water of the new concept of distiller on water condensation rate and fresh water production. A general model based on heat and mass transfers in each component of the unit has been developed in steady dynamic regime. The developed model is used, simulating the HD system, to investigate the influence of the meteorological and operating parameters on the system productivity. The obtained set of ordinary differential equations has been converted to a set of algebraic system of equations by the functional approximation method of orthogonal collocation. The developed model is used to simulate the HD system in order to investigate the steady state behavior of each component of the unit and the entire system exposed to a variation of the entrance parameters and meteorological conditions. The obtained results were compared with those of other studies and the comparison gives a good validity of the present results.
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Recommended by Associate Editor Chang Yong Park
K. Zarzoum is a Ph.D. Student at National Engineering School at Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax, Tunisia. His research interests include Desalination Renewable Energy (Solar energy application for water desalination.
K. Zhani is an Assistant Professor in the mechanical department at the higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of Kairouan (ISSATK), University of Kairouan - Tunisia. He holds a Ph.D. in mechanics (ENIS, University of Sfax, April 2011).
H. Ben Bacha is a Full Professor at Engineering School of Sfax (Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sfax - ENIS), University of Sfax–Tunisia and a Manager of training at the ENIS since 2005. And he is also a head of Team Renewable Energy at the Laboratoire des Systèmes Electromécaniques (LASEM). His research fields are water desalination by solar energy, air conditioning by solar energy and maintenance of systems.
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Zarzoum, K., Zhani, K. & Ben Bacha, H. Numerical study of a water distillation system using solar energy. J Mech Sci Technol 30, 889–902 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0143-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0143-4