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Exergy and energy analysis of a tubular solar still with and without fins: a comparative theoretical and experimental approach

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Abstract

One of the major challenges faced by human society is the freshwater crisis and shortage of conventional energy. Solar still is considered as one of the promising sources for the production of freshwater from saline water by desalination method. This paper represents the theoretical and experimental study of tubular solar still with and without fins. In this experimental study, the readings were recorded from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The results of this experiment show that the efficiency of tubular solar still (TSS) with fins and without fins is found as 23.39 and 13.76% respectively. The rate of irreversibility from the basin of TSS with flat is higher than TSS with finned absorber and also the rate of irreversibility from water is significantly reduced by TSS with the finned absorber. The exergy analysis showed the maximum exergy efficiency of about 11.8% from the TSS with fins and about 10.6% from the TSS with a flat absorber.

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Abbreviations

TSS:

Tubular solar still

DBSS:

Double basin solar still

SB-SS:

Single basin solar still

DC:

Direct current

EHTC:

Evaporative heat transfer coefficient

CHTC:

Convective heat transfer coefficient

ETC:

Evacuated tube collector

HDH:

Humidification–dehumidification

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamic simulation

CSS:

Concentrated solar still

PCM:

Phase change material

T :

Ambient temperature (K)

T sun :

Temperature of sun (K)

A :

Area (m2)

U b :

Overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

I (t):

Solar intensity (W/m2)

I r,g :

Rate of irreversibility from glass

h fg :

Latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg)

E in :

Exergy input (W/m2)

E out :

Exergy output (W/m2)

E evap :

Exergy associated with the heat transfer through evaporation

E sun :

Solar exergy

τ :

Transmissivity

α :

Absorptivity

η :

Efficiency

a:

Ambient

w:

Water

b:

Basin

g:

Glass

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Ravishankar Sathyamurthy, Ramani Bharathwaaj & Sathiyaseelan Vasanthaseelan

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

    Ravishankar Sathyamurthy & Abd Elnaby Kabeel

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

    Abd Elnaby Kabeel

  4. Faculty of Engineering, Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Doha District, Kuwait, Kuwait

    Ali Chamkha

  5. Center of Excellence in Desalination Technology, King Abdulaziz University, PO Box 80200, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Ali Chamkha

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

    Hemanth Arun Kumar, Hariprasath Venkateswaran & Athikesavan Muthu Manokar

Authors
  1. Ravishankar Sathyamurthy
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  2. Abd Elnaby Kabeel
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  3. Ali Chamkha
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  4. Hemanth Arun Kumar
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  5. Hariprasath Venkateswaran
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  6. Athikesavan Muthu Manokar
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  7. Ramani Bharathwaaj
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  8. Sathiyaseelan Vasanthaseelan
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Contributions

Conceptualization, methodology, resources, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation, review and editing, and supervision and investigation were carried out by Ravishankar Sathyamurthy, Abd Elnaby Kabeel, and Ali Chamkha.

Writing—original draft preparation and review and editing were carried out by Hemanth Arun Kumar, Hariprasath Venkateswaran, Athikesavan Muthu Manokar, Ramani Bharathwaaj, and Sathiyaseelan Vasanthaseelan.

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Correspondence to Ravishankar Sathyamurthy.

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Sathyamurthy, R., Kabeel, A.E., Chamkha, A. et al. Exergy and energy analysis of a tubular solar still with and without fins: a comparative theoretical and experimental approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 6612–6621 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16065-w

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