Sustainable Distilled Water Production Using a Solar Parabolic Dish: Hybrid Nanofluids, Numerical Analysis, and Explainable AI

Erdem Alic, Bilal Alatas (), Mehmet Das, Cebrail Barut, Ercan Aydoğmuş and Ebru Akpinar
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Erdem Alic: Andırın Vocational High School Department, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, 46100 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye
Bilal Alatas: Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Fırat University, 23119 Elazığ, Türkiye
Mehmet Das: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Fırat University, 23119 Elazığ, Türkiye
Cebrail Barut: Continuing Education Center Department, Fırat University, 23200 Elazığ, Türkiye
Ercan Aydoğmuş: Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Fırat University, 23119 Elazığ, Türkiye
Ebru Akpinar: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Fırat University, 23119 Elazığ, Türkiye

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-36

Abstract: This research offers valuable improvements in the efficiency and water yield of a parabolic dish concentrator (PDC) solar distillation system, contributing to more sustainable and effective renewable energy solutions. Three hybrid nanofluids were evaluated, and their performance was measured through experiments and simulations. The numerical model is within 5% agreement with the measurements. Daily distilled water production increases by 25.7% with hybrid nanofluids (from 4.50 L to 5.67 L). The average exergy efficiency is approximately 19%. Furthermore, an interpretable, rule-based AI controller optimized with the Coati algorithm was integrated; this controller suggested operating setpoints and revealed transparent decision thresholds. This work is the first systematic PDC study where three different hybrid nanofluids were examined and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) was applied within a single framework. The results demonstrate that higher performance and more predictable operation are achievable for producing distilled water based on PDC.

Keywords: solar distillation; hybrid nanofluid; parabolic dish concentrator; coati optimization algorithm; rule-based optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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