Abstract
Water scarcity in several parts of the world is a matter of concern for human beings. Humidification-dehumidification (HD) solar desalination system is one of the viable approaches to mitigate the lack of fresh water. This paper focuses on the design and performance improvement of a distillation module used in a recent developed solar HD desalination system. The design and the principle of functioning of the distillation module are described. The influences of operating variables on yield and performance are studied. Operating variables include the air and water temperatures at entry to the distillation module, the humidifier water flow rate, and the cooling water flow rate into the dehumidifier. To conduct such a study, a mathematical model was established including the mechanism of heat and mass transfer in both the humidification chamber and the dehumidification one. These models use real meteorological data to predict the performance of a thermal solar-driven distillation module.