Solar Still Efficiency Enhancement by Using Graphene Oxide/Paraffin Nano-PCM

Mohammad Reza Safaei, Hamid Reza Goshayeshi and Issa Chaer
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Mohammad Reza Safaei: Division of Computational Physics, Institute for Computational Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City 758307, Vietnam
Hamid Reza Goshayeshi: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad 918714757, Iran
Issa Chaer: Centre for Civil and Building Service Engineering, School of the Built Environment and Architecture, London South Bank University, London SE1 0AA, UK

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Solar-driven water desalination technologies are rapidly developing with various links to other renewable sources. However, the efficiency of such systems severely depends on the design parameters. The present study focused on using graphene oxide (GO) with the Φ = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 wt.% dispersed in paraffin, as phase-change materials (PCMs), to improve the productivity of a solar still for desalination applications. The outcomes showed that by adding more graphene oxide to paraffin, the melting temperature got reduced. Solar still with GO/paraffin showed 25% productivity improvement in comparison with the solar still with only PCM. The obtained Nusselt number during the melting time also represented that free convection heat transfer into the melted region of the solar still has been enhanced by adding dispersed GO to the PCM, compared to the base paraffin. Also, increasing the hot wall temperature augments the Nusselt number. Finally, an empirical equation was derived to correlate the average Nusselt number as a function of Rayleigh number (Ra), the Stefan number (Ste), the subcooling factor (Sb), and the Fourier number (Fo). The obtained correlation depicted that Nusselt number enhancement has a reverse relation with Fourier number.

Keywords: solar still; phase-change material; experimental study; graphene oxide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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