Abstract
•A new trapezoidal pyramid solar still design was proposed and investigated.•Multi thermal enhancers with low cost was provided and investigated.•The thermo-economic performance was tested compared a conventional still.•Maximum enhancement of 147.3 and 144.2% was achieved in production and efficiency.•Feasible freshwater production was achieved with 42.6% reduction in cost.
Currently, many efforts have been conducted to augment the solar desalination systems' performance, especially solar stills, as a participation in solving the water shortage and energy consumption crises. Herein, the current manuscript introduces a new design of trapezoidal pyramid solar still. This design was compared to a conventional (single slope) solar still. The proposed design contained central trapezoidal pyramidal wick structure aiming to enlarge the area exposed to insolation, and hence boosting the evaporation rate. Then, the modified solar still was integrated with cover cooling unit to improve the condensation rate and external reflectors to concentrate the radiation on the wick structure (evaporation surface). The cooling unit and reflectors were used separately in the second and third case, respectively, then they were utilized together in the fourth case. Finally, in the last case, to enhance the thermo-physical properties of the basin saline water, a copper-oxide nanoparticles were added and the resulted nanofluid was used instead of the basin water. Besides, based on the experimental findings, the thermo-economic performance was assessed. The results showed that the proposed system is feasible with significantly enhanced performance. In addition, compared to relevant works, the proposed deign and modifications are competitive and can add important knowledge to the desalination research field. As a result, the system provided with all modifications could augment the productivity, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency by 147.3, 144.2, and 275.5%. Economically, the freshwater cost could be reduced by 42.58%.