Energy and exergy analysis of solar stills with micro/nano particles: A comprehensive study

TL;DR

This study compares the energy and exergy performance of modified solar stills using micro/nano particles with classical stills, demonstrating significant efficiency improvements and analyzing the effects of various parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of how micro/nano particles enhance solar still performance, including energy and exergy efficiencies, which is a novel comparison to traditional designs.

Findings

Modified stills show higher evaporation rates and exergy of evaporation.

Energy efficiencies of modified stills are significantly higher than classical stills.

Exergy efficiencies of nanofluid-based stills outperform classical configurations.

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative study between modified solar stills (with graphite or copper oxide micro/nano particles) and classical solar still is carried out, based on the productivity and the thermal performance. Exergy destructions in various components of the solar stills have been calculated, analyzed and discussed. Evaporation is faster and the exergy of evaporation is higher at the modified solar stills than that of the classical one. Furthermore, the energy and exergy efficiencies of the modified stills are enhanced compared with the classical one. A brief discussion regarding the effect of different parameters on solar stills efficiency is also presented. The daytime energy efficiency of graphite/water and copper oxide/water mixtures are 41.18% and 38.61%, respectively, but for the classical still is only 29.17%. Moreover, the daytime exergy efficiencies of graphite, copper oxide nanofluid based stills and classical still are 4.32%, 3.78% and 2.63%, respectively.