Cost analysis of different solar still configurations

A.E. Kabeel, A.M. Hamed and S.A. El-Agouz

Energy, 2010, vol. 35, issue 7, 2901-2908

Abstract: The enhancement of the productivity of the solar desalination system, in a certain location, could be attained by a proper modification in the system design. Therefore, different design configurations could be found in literatures. However, the increase in the system productivity with high system cost may increase also the average annual cost of the distillate. Cost analysis of different design configurations of solar desalination units is essential to evaluate the benefit of modification from the economical point of view. The main objective of this work is to estimate the water production cost for different types of solar stills. In this paper 17 design configurations are considered. Systems with higher and lower values of productivity are considered in this investigation. A simplified model for cost analysis is applied in this study. The results show that, the best average and maximum daily productivity are obtained from solar stills of single-slope and pyramid-shaped. The higher average annual productivity for a solar still is about 1533 l/m2 using pyramid-shaped while the lower average annual productivity is about of 250 l/m2 using modified solar stills with sun tracking. The lowest cost of distilled water obtained from the pyramid-shaped solar still is estimated as 0.0135 $/l while highest cost from the modified solar stills with sun tracking is estimated as 0.23 $/l.

Keywords: Solar still; Cost analysis; Solar desalination system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:35:y:2010:i:7:p:2901-2908

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2010.03.021

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