Performance improvement of solar still by using hybrid nanofluids
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Performance improvement of solar still by using hybrid nanofluids Hossain Md. Fazle Rabbi1 · Ahmet Z. Sahin1 Received: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 4 August 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract The biggest shortcoming of conventional solar still is its limited productivity. In this work, improvement of solar still performance using two hybrid nanofluids is examined. Use of hot water and two conventional nanofluids were also utilized to study the improvement of the performance of solar still. Hybrid nanofluids, hot water or conventional nanofluids were linked to the solar system with heat exchanger placed at the bottom of the basin of the solar still. Pure desalinated water yield, the first and the second law efficiencies of the solar still with hybrid nanofluid were observed through modeling. Utilization of heat exchanger with hot water improved the solar still performance. Conventional nanofluids showed better performance than hot water. The best performance is obtained with the use of hybrid nanofluids. The yield, thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency with water–Al2O3–SiO2 hybrid nanofluid resulted in 4.99 kg m−2 day−1, 37.76% and 0.82%, respectively. The basin water depth, nanofluid flow rate, inlet heat exchanger temperature of the nanofluid and nanoparticle concentration played vital role together with solar radiation and ambient temperature to improve the performance. Keywords Solar still · Nanofluid · Hybrid nanofluid · Performance · Efficiency
Introduction The conquest of finding safe drinking water has been going on since old times. One of the simplest techniques of producing freshwater is solar desalination in solar still. The technological simplicity, use of abundantly available solar energy and low cost make it a popular choice for the people of remote locations specially in less developed countries [1]. Conventional solar still has very low productivity and very poor thermal performance due to convective and radiative heat losses. Use of nanofluid is one of the most notable ways of overcoming these shortcomings. Usage of nanofluid is found in numerous cases in the literature for analyzing free or natural convection, energy and exergy of different systems and different solar energy applications, etc. [2–6]. Nanofluids, prepared by adding nanometer-sized additives in base fluid, possess better thermophysical and optical properties to make better heat transfer and reduced heat loss to produce more fresh water. Heat transfer coefficients are increased by using nanofluids which in turn increases * Ahmet Z. Sahin [email protected] 1
Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
the production of solar still. That is why nanofluids are being used in solar still nowadays to improve the production rate and the thermal performance together with some other modifications like adding condenser, heat exchanger, wicks, vacuum system, evacuated tube, etc. [7–9]. Use of Nanofluid in producing fresh water from the salty sea water i
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