Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

A parametric study on a humidicationdehumidication (HDH)

desalination unit powered by solar air and water heaters q
_
Solmus b
Cihan Yldrm a,, Ismail
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adana Science and Technology University, TR-01180 Adana, Turkey
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Atatrk University, TR-25240 Erzurum, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 November 2012
Accepted 6 June 2014
Available online 28 June 2014
Keywords:
Solar energy
Desalination
Distillation
Humidication
Dehumidication

a b s t r a c t
The performance of a solar powered humidicationdehumidication desalination system is theoretically investigated for various operating and design parameters of the system under climatological conditions of Antalya, Turkey. The primary components of the system are a at plate solar water heater, a at
plate double pass solar air heater, a humidier, a dehumidier and a storage tank. The mathematical
model of the system is developed and governing conservation equations are numerically solved by using
the Fourth order RungeKutta method. Daily and annual yields are calculated for different congurations
of the system such as only water heating, only air heating and waterair heating.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fresh water is an indispensable need for both the continuity of
biological life and the development of civilization and industry.
However, fresh water sources are rapidly declining because of
gradually increasing human population, industrial pollution,
urbanization and inappropriate agricultural policies. Although
most of the Earths space is occupied by water, only 1% of water
is potable. Some techniques have been developed to provide potable water. Desalination is one of these techniques. It has been used
to provide potable water from salt water or brackish water. Countries having inadequate available water supplies have obtained
fresh water from sea water by using fossil fuels for a long time.
In time, it has been understood that use of fossil fuels is not a sustainable way and it damages environment. Therefore, the use of
renewable energy sources is investigated intensively.
The process based on humidicationdehumidication (HDH)
principle mimic the natural water cycle. HDH technique has been
subjected to many studies in recent years due to the low-temperature energy (geothermal, solar, waste energy) use, simplicity, low
cost in installation and in operation. HDH desalination systems
also work at atmospheric pressure; hence they do not need
q
The short form of this paper was presented in The European Workshop on
Renewable Energy Systems (EWRES 2012), which took place on 1728 Sep. 2012,
Antalya, Turkey.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 322 4550000/2099; fax: +90 322 4550009.
E-mail addresses: ycihan@adanabtu.edu.tr (C. Yldrm), solmus@atauni.edu.tr
_ Solmus).
(I.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2014.06.016
0196-8904/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

mechanical energy except for circulation pumps and fans. These

kinds of systems do not require high-tech. Therefore, their design,
construction and operation are easy. These kinds of systems are
suitable for developing countries. The system is modular; hence,
it is possible to increase system capacity with additional solar collectors and additional HDH cycles. The state of art, current status,
history of different technologies, usage of renewable energy
sources in desalination processes have been reviewed so far [14].
Dai and Zhang [5] presented an experimental study on a HDH
desalination system. They observed that the system performance
is inuenced by feed water mass ow rate, feed water temperature
and air mass ow rate. They found an optimum rotation speed of
fan corresponding to an optimum air mass ow rate. Bourouni
et al. [6] presented some information about different congurations of HDH systems and made general assessment on these systems. Low temperature desalination and mechanical compression
of moist air were evaluated in this work as well. Al-Enezi et al.
[7] conducted an experimental study to determine the efciency
of a low capacity HDH system for various operating conditions.
The parameters of interest were feed water temperature, feed
water mass ow rate, air mass ow rate and cooling water temperature. They observed that production of the system strongly
depends on the feed water temperature. Nafey et al. [8,9] examined a HDH desalination system theoretically and experimentally.
They used a at plate solar air heater and a parabolic concentrated
solar water heater together. In the theoretical study, inuences of
the solar air heater, solar water heater and both of them on the
clean water production were examined. Open circuit and closed

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.

569

Nomenclature

a
b
/

qa
qg
s
u
Ac
cpa
cpw
D
F0
FR
hg
ha2e
ha3
ha4
Ib
Id
Ma
Mc
M mw
M w1
mw1
M w2
M w3
P
Pg
Qu
qc;ba2
qc;g1a1
qc;g1amb
qc;g1g2
qc;pa1
qc;pa2

absorptivity
tilt angle,
latitude of location,
density of air, kg=m3
ground reectance
transmissivity
relative humidity
collector surface area, m2
specic heat of air, J= kg  C
specic heat of water, J=kg  C
channel thickness of the solar air heater, m
collector efciency factor
heat removal factor
enthalpy of the saturated water vapor, J=kg
enthalpy of air leaving from solar air heater, J=kg
enthalpy of air at inlet of the dehumidier, J=kg
enthalpy of air at outlet the of dehumidier, J=kg
beam solar radiation, W=m2
diffuse solar radiation, W=m2
air mass ow rate, kg=s
collected clean water mass ow rate, kg=s
make-up water mass ow rate, kg=s
feed water mass ow rate, kg=s
mass of water in the storage tank, kg
water mass ow rate at outlet of the humidier, kg=s
cooling water mass ow rate at inlet of the dehumidier, kg=s
atmospheric pressure, kPa
saturation pressure of water vapor, kPa
useful energy gained from the water heater, W
convective heat transfer from basin plate to lower channel
convective heat transfer from rst glass cover to air in
the upper channel
convective heat transfer from rst glass cover to ambient
convective heat transfer from rst glass cover to second
glass cover
convective heat transfer from absorber plate to rst
glass cover
convective heat transfer from absorber plate to lower
channel

circuit systems were modeled and investigated as well. Same circuits in the theoretical work were constructed and investigated
in the experimental study. In both studies they investigated the
effects of feed water ow rate, air ow rate, cooling water ow rate
and meteorological conditions on the performance of the system.
Fath and Ghazy [10] developed a computer simulation program
to examine the effects of design and environmental parameters
on the performance of a HDH desalination system. They used open
water circuit and natural air circulation circuit to reduce investment and operating costs of the system. They observed the importance of air heaters efciencies in this system. Chak [11] worked
with a new solar-powered HDH desalination system. The author
designed a step distillation system and used a low cost solar air
heater. The system was operated in laboratory with articial sunlight and reached 400 l of water production values daily. Fath
et al. [12] investigated the thermal performance of a novel HDH
desalination system. The system was divided into two chambers
with a group of stepped basins and air was circulated through
chambers. Energy and mass conservation equations were derived
and solved numerically by considering various conditions.

ql;bamb
qr;g1g2
qr;g2sky
qr;pb
qr;pg1
Rb
S
Ti
To
T a1e
T a1
T a2e
T a2
T amb
Tb
T g1
T g2
T pm
Tp
T w1
T w2
T w2
T w3
T w4
T w5
Ub
Ue
UL
Ut
W

heat loss from basin plate to ambient

radiative heat transfer from rst glass cover to second
glass cover
radiative heat transfer from second glass cover to sky
radiative heat transfer from absorber plate to basin
plate
radiative heat transfer from absorber plate to rst glass
cover
ratio of beam radiation on tilted surface to that on horizontal surface
absorbed energy by the absorber, W=m2
uid inlet temperature of the water heater,  C
uid outlet temperature of the water heater,  C
temperature of air leaving from upper channel,  C;
temperature of air in upper channel,  C
temperature of air leaving from lower channel,  C
temperature of air in lower channel,  C
ambient temperature,  C
temperature of the basin plate,  C
temperature of the rst glass cover,  C
temperature of the second glass cover,  C
mean plate temperature of the water heater,  C
temperature of the absorber plate,  C
temperature of feed water,  C
temperature of make-up water,  C
temperature of water at outlet of the humidier,  C
temperature of cooling water at inlet of the dehumidier,  C
temperature of cooling water at outlet of the dehumidier,  C
temperature of collected water gained from the dehumidier,  C
bottom heat loss coefcient of the water heater,
W=m2  C
edge heat loss coefcient of the water heater, W=m2  C;
overall heat loss coefcient of the water heater,
W=m2  C;
top heat loss coefcient of the water heater, W=m2  C
moisture content of air, kgwater =kgair ;

Decreasing air ow rate from 0.1 kg/s to 0.001 kg/s resulted in partially increase in clean water production. Or et al. [13] theoretically and experimentally investigated a HDH desalination system
consisting of at plate solar collectors to heat water and air. They
calculated the transient efciency of humidier and determined
optimum ratio of air/water ow rate for maximum productivity.
Ettouey [14] examined a number of different HDH processes such
as classical condensing system, mechanical compression system,
desiccant air drying system and membrane air drying system. Optimum condenser and evaporator size were calculated from a simple
mathematical model. Or et al. [15] examined a HDH desalination
system using a general model based on heat and mass transfer balance and optimized operating parameters to maximize productivity. They reported that 43 kg daily clean water from per square
meter of solar collector surface area can be collected under the climatological condition of Tunisia.
Solar air heaters are used in many applications such as heating
spaces or greenhouses, drying crops, and desalination process. Forson et al. [16] investigated a parallel pass solar air heater experimentally and theoretically. They reported that air mass ow rate

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.

570

was the dominant parameter on thermal efciency. The improvement potential of nned double pass solar air heater was studied
by Fudholi et al. [17]. Performance and cost benet analysis of a
double pass solar air heater with and without ns were carried
out by Fudholi et al. [18]. As well, they examined energy and exergy efciency of the system for various collector length and solar
intensity. Year round performance of double pass solar air heater
congured with packed bed was investigated by El-Sebaii et al.
[19]. They used limestone and gravel to enhance system performance. An interesting approach was proposed to improve thermal
efciency of single and double pass solar air heaters by zgen et al.
[20], Esen et al. [21] and Esen et al. [22]. They used aluminum cans
as obstacles to increase heat transfer rate. Yamal and Solmus theoretically [23] and experimentally [24] investigated a HDH desalination system congured with a double pass solar air heater. They
developed a mathematical model for the each of the system components to examine the inuences of different design and operational parameters on the system performance. They found that
system productivity increases with increasing feed water ow rate
and feed water temperature. Yldrm and Solmus [25] theoretically investigated the transient dynamics of a double pass solar
air heater.
Solar water heaters are well known solar energy conversion
systems and they have been extensively investigated by many
researchers so far. Dufe and Beckman [26] and Kl and ztrk
[27] are mostly used references for design calculation of the solar
water heaters. Al-Ajlan et al. [28] presented a theoretical model
for the solar water heaters. Taherian et al. [29] conducted a transient analysis for a at plate solar water heater. They compared
their theoretical results with experimental ones and they found a
good agreement between them. Zambolin and Del Col [30] compared the performance of a at plate collector with that of an evacuated one. They investigated the steady state and dynamic
performance of the collectors. Rodiguez-Hidalgo et al. [31,32] theoretically and experimentally investigated the transient behavior
of the at plate solar water heater. Skeiker [33] examined the optimum slope angle and orientation of the solar collectors in Syria via
a mathematical model.
In this work, a mathematical model of the system is developed
and performance of the system is theoretically examined for various operating parameters of the system under the climatological
conditions of Antalya, Turkey. The system is mainly powered by
solar energy and its working principle is based on HDH technique.
The mathematical model which is formed by considering the
energy and mass balance of constituting units of desalination system are solved numerically. Daily and annual yields of the system
are discussed for different heating conguration schemes such as
only water heating, only air heating and waterair heating. Effects

of the tilt angle of the collectors on clean water production are also
discussed.
2. System description and mathematical modeling
2.1. System description
HDH desalination system consists of a double glass-double pass
solar air heater, a at plate solar water heater, a humidier (evaporator), a dehumidier (condenser) and a storage tank. A schematic
view of the system is presented in Fig. 1. The system is based on
closed wateropen air circuit. Air at the ambient condition is
heated by the rst pass of double pass solar air heater and further
heated by second pass then humidied with seawater or brackish
water in the humidier. Sea water is heated by the at plate solar
water heater and distributed into the humidier. Heated sea water
and air are brought into contact in the humidier. Humidied air
passes through the dehumidier. Then, water vapor condenses
on the dehumidier surfaces and turns into fresh water product.
Collected water at the bottom of the humidier is stored in the
insulated tank. The water at the tank is pumped into the solar
water heater and recirculated to the humidier. Cooling water is
supplied to the dehumidier from a constant temperature water
bath.
2.2. Mathematical modeling
A mathematical model is proposed to simulate the system in
question. The energy and mass balance equations are derived for
each of the system components. The governing conservation equations were simultaneously solved by fourth order RK method. The
model proposed based on the following assumptions and
simplications.
 Heat exchange between the edges of the solar heaters and
ambient are neglected.
 Radiant energy absorbed by the owing air through the solar air
heater is neglected.
 There is no air leakage from the system, when air passes
through the solar air heater, humidier and dehumidier.
 Air temperature varies linearly along the ow directions in the
solar air heater.
 Fluid ow through the system components is fully developed
whether it is laminar or turbulent.
 The wet-bulb temperature of air leaving from the humidier is
equal to temperature of water leaving from there.
 Air leaving from the humidier is completely saturated.
 The dehumidication process lies on the saturation curve.

Humidifier
Feed water circuit
Cooling water circuit
Air circuit

Sun

Clean water circuit

Double pass
solar air
heater

Dehumidifier

Fan
Flat plate
water heater

Collected
clean
water
Pump
Storage
tank

Fig. 1. Schematic view of the HDH solar desalination system.

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.

 Temperatures of product and cooling water and dry-bulb temperature of the air leaving from the dehumidier are the same.
 Temperature gradient inside the storage tank is neglected.
 Water temperature at the inlet of the solar water heater is equal
to that at the exit of the storage tank.
 Cooling water temperature is constant during the operation.
 Solar radiation, wind speed, and relative humidity and temperature of the ambient air are constant at each instant through an
hour.
 Solar water heater is by-passed after sunset for reducing heat
losses. This means that temperature of water at the inlet of
the humidier is equal to temperature of water in the storage
tank.
Meteorological data belonging the year of 2011 are used in this
study and it is provided by Turkish State Meteorological Service.
However, due to the some missing solar radiation data, a statistical
model proposed by Bulut and Bykalaca [34] is employed to produce solar data.
Absorbed energy by the tilted absorber plates and useful energy
are calculated by [26]

S Ib Rb sab Id sad

1 cos b
1  cos b
qg Ib Id sag
2
2

571

 Second air pass

qa Ac Dcpa

dT a2
qc;pa2 qc;ba2  M a cpa T a2e  T a1e
dt

 Base plate

dT b
qr;pb  qc;ba2  ql;bamb
dt

mb cpb

10

All heat transfer expressions in the energy balance of the solar air
heater are calculated as previous works [23,25].
The following equations are obtained by applying the rst law
of thermodynamics to the water storage tank, humidier and
dehumidier,
 Water storage tank

mw1 cpw

dT w1
M w2 cpw T w2 M mw cpw T mw  Mw1 cpw T w1
dt
 ql;w1amb

11

1
 Humidier

and useful energy for the solar water heater:

Ma ha3  ha2e M w1 cpw T w1  M w2 cpw T w2

Q u Ac S  U L T pm  T amb  Ac F R S  U L T i  T amb 
M w1 cpw T o  T i

where U L is the overall heat loss coefcient of the solar water heater
and it is a sum of top U t , bottom U b and edge U e heat loss coefcients [27].

UL Ut Ub Ue

and F r is the heat removal factor which is calculated from the design
parameters of water heater [28].




Mw1 cpw
Ac U L F0
FR
1  exp 
Mw1 cpw
Ac U L

dT g1
Iag sg Ac  qr;g1g2  qc;g1a1 qr;pg1  qc;g1g2
dt

0:622uPg
P  uP g

16

The humidity and enthalpy of the saturated air can be computed by means of the following empirical equations, which are
functions of air temperature [36]:

W 7:7  107  T 3  1:95  105  T 2 0:00071  T

 Absorber plate

17

ha 2:82  105  T 4  0:00106  T 3 0:00615  T 2

1:32  T 10:5

dT p
Iap s2g Ac  qc;pa2  qc;pa1  qr;pg1  qr;pb
dt

15

hg is the enthalpy of the saturated water vapor and it can be computed using the empirical equation below [23]:

0:002

mp cpp

14

where Pg is the saturation pressure of the water vapor and it can be

calculated by the following equation [23]:

hg 9:3  106  T 3  1:9  105  T 2 1:8  T 2500

 First air pass

dT
qa Ac Dcpa a1 qc;pa1 qc;g1a1  Ma cpa T a1e  T amb
dt

13

The moisture content of the air entering the solar air heater is
found by the following equation [35]:

0:0014  T 2 0:044  T 0:61

 First glass cover

mg cpg

Ma ha3  ha4 Mw3 cpw T w4  T w3  M c cpw T w5

Pg 2:7  109  T 5 2:8  107  T 4 2:7  105  T 3

 Second glass cover

dT g2
Iag Ac qr;g1g2  qc;g1amb  qr;g2sky qc;g1g2
dt

 Dehumidier

W1

Energy balance equations for the solar air heater components

can be written as follows [23,25],

mg cpg

12

18

The mass ow rate of the clean water product leaving from the
dehumidier is calculated by difference of moisture content
between the inlet and outlet of the dehumidier:

Mc M a W 3  W 4

19

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C. Yldrm, I.

572

2.3. Solution procedure

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Daily production
Daily simulations are performed for the mid August
(15.08.2011) in Antalya, Turkey. The meteorological parameters,
such as, wind velocity, humidity, ambient temperature and solar
radiation are used as input parameters for the simulation which
is run between the sunrise and sunset. Solar radiation on the 30
tilted surface and ambient temperature during the day are given
in Fig. 2.
Effects of air mass ow rate and feed water mass ow rate on
the clean water production are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. 3 just
air heater is considered. On the other hand in Fig. 4 air heater and
water heater are used together. Air and water heating congura-

Daily clean water (kg/day)

2.8

2.6

2.4

2.2

Mw1=0.01 kg/s
Mw1=0.02 kg/s
Mw1=0.03 kg/s
Mw1=0.06 kg/s

1.8
0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

Air mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig. 3. Effects of air mass ow rate M a and feed water mass ow rate Mw1 on clean
water production for air heating conguration.

24
22

Daily clean water (kg/day)

A computer simulation program according to mathematical

model is developed by means of MATLAB software to investigate
the effect of the operating parameters on the clean water production of the system. Time dependent energy balance equations are
solved simultaneously by using the fourth order RungeKutta
method.
Time interval is chosen to be one second and the initial values of
T g2 ; T g1 ; T a1 ; T a2 ; T w1 are assumed to be nearly equal to the ambient
temperature. T b ; T p are assumed to be 5 and 10 C above the ambient temperature, respectively, because the solar energy is stored as
sensible heat at the absorber plate and base plate in the early
morning hours. Then, these assumed initial temperatures are used
to determine the heat transfer coefcients. Thereafter, the rst
order ordinary differential equations are solved numerically to
obtain new temperatures which are used as initial conditions
and the process above is repeated to solve the equations for the
next time step.
Mean plate temperature of the solar water heater is guessed initially and calculated iteratively. As a result, after knowing the inlet
water and air temperatures to the humidier at each of the time
intervals, the temperature of air leaving from the humidier is calculated by Eq. (12) and the temperature of air leaving from the
dehumidier is evaluated by Eq. (13). In the dehumidier, the
quantity of clear water product is calculated by Eq. (19).
1  2 m2 water heater absorber surface area and 1  2 m2 air
heater absorber surface area are considered for all calculations.

20
18
16
14
12
10

Mw1=0.01 kg/s
Mw1=0.02 kg/s
Mw1=0.04 kg/s
Mw1=0.09 kg/s

8
6
0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008

0.01

0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018

0.02

Air mass flow rate (kg/s)

Fig. 4. Effects of air mass ow rate M a and feed water mass ow rate Mw1 on clean
water production for air and water heating conguration.

16
1000
Solar radiation
Ambient temperature

800

29

600

28

400

27

200

26

Daily clean water (kg/day)

14

Ambient temperature o C

Solar radiation on tilted surface W/m 2

Air heating
Water heating
Air&Water heating

30

12

10

12

16

20

24

25

0
0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008

Fig. 2. Variation of solar radiation on tilted (b 30 ) surface and ambient

temperature in Antalya, Turkey (15.08.2011).

0.01

0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018

0.02

Air mass flow rate (kg/s)

Time (hour)
Fig. 5. Comparison
Mw3 0:01 kg=s.

of

different

heating

congurations.

Mw1 0:01 kg=s;

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.
100
90
80

Temperature o C

tion gives better result since air and water temperatures at the
inlet of the humidier shows a signicant raise as both the air
and water heaters are used together in the system. Therefore, such
conguration enhances greatly evaporation rate resulting in an
improvement on the system performance. This conguration type
increases the clean water production up to approximately 58
times compared to air heating conguration (Fig. 5).
Clean water production increases with increasing air mass ow
rate to a certain point and after that point clean water production
slightly decreases with increasing air mass ow rate for all conguration types. Dai and Zhang [5] indicated the same phenomena
with curve tted experimental results. In addition to that the optimum air mass ow rate was evaluated as 0.6 kg/s by Fath and
Ghazy [10]. The reason is that increasing air mass ow rate
increases heat gain from the solar air heater as well as carried
vapor. However, wet bulb temperature of air at the outlet of the
solar air heater decreases when air mass ow rate is increased.
Also water temperature at the humidier is decreased by air. In
addition to this, increasing air mass ow rate reduces the dehumidier performance for a specied cooling water mass ow rate
and temperature. It means that absolute humidity of the air leaving
from the dehumidier increases. Same result was observed in the
studies of Nafey et al. [9] and Yamal and Solmus [23,24].
Increasing feed water mass ow rate increases the clean water
production up to an asymptotic value (Figs. 3 and 4). Flowing air
through the humidier reduces the water temperature, while owing water through the humidier increases the air temperature.
Therefore, dry-bulb temperature of air at the outlet of the humidier increases with increasing feed water mass ow rate. Air is
capable to carry more vapor due to increasing dry-bulb temperature. The reason of this result is that air is enriched by moisture.
This result is contradicted with the study of Nafey et al. [9]. They
reported that if feed water mass ow rate is increased, the amount
of clean water production decreases for constant air mass ow
rate. They explained that; when feed water mass ow rate is
increased, feed water temperature decreases. This problem can
be prevented by sensible heat storage for night operation.
Clean water production is inuenced by the variation of cooling
water temperature and cooling water mass ow rate (Fig. 6).
Increasing cooling water mass ow rate or decreasing cooling
water temperature decrease the condenser surface temperature
and increases condensation rate.

573

70
60
50
40
30
20

12

16

20

24

12

16

20

24

Time (hour)
Mw1=0.001 kg/s

Mw1=0.01 kg/s

Mw1=0.1 kg/s

Fig. 7. Variation of water temperature in the storage tank during the days.

3.2. Annual production

Annual simulations are performed for the year of 2011 in Antalya, Turkey. The meteorological parameters, such as, wind velocity,
humidity, ambient temperature and solar radiation used as input
parameters for the simulations. 24-h operation is selected instead
of sunrise to sunset operation for annual investigation. Operating
parameters are xed as M w1 0:01 kg=s; M w3 0:01 kg=s,
M a 0:01 kg=s; T w3 20  C for all year.
Variation of water temperature inside the storage tank with
time is shown in Fig. 7. A considerable amount of energy is stored
in the storage tank at the sunset and hence, desalination process
can be continued during the night. It means that clean water production can be increased by 24-h operation instead of sunrise to
sunset operation.
Annual clean water production is investigated for air heating
conguration and water heating conguration separately.
There is no clean water production for the system with air heating conguration at the winter days (Fig. 8). Because absorbed
solar radiation and ambient temperature are not enough to proceed humidication process except the summer days.
On the other hand, the system with water heating conguration
can produce some clean water for all days of the year (Fig. 9). Clean
water production of the system is high at the summer days and

=30

25

=40

3.5

20

15

=15 C

w3

Tw3=20 C

10

Tw3=25 C

Daily clean water (kg/day)

Daily clean water (kg/day)

=50

=60

2.5
2
1.5
1

Tw3=30 C

5
0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Cooling water mass flow rate (kg/s)

0.5
0
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Day
Fig. 6. Effects of cooling water mass ow rate M w3 and cooling water temperature
T w3 on clean water production for air & water heating conguration.

Fig. 8. Variation of daily clean water production with air heater tilt angle.

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.

574
45

Daily clean water (kg/day)

40
35
30
25
20
15

=30

10

=40

=50

low at the winter days. In addition to that, clean water production

is scaled up with the 24-h operation compared to sunrise to sunset
operation for the reference day (15.08.2011).
Tilt angle of the collectors is one of the important design parameter for the solar energy systems. Utilization from incoming solar
energy depends on the incident angle of the beam radiation. Clean
water production of the system with air heater increases while the
tilt angle of the solar air heater approaches the horizontal positioning (Fig. 10). The maximum amount of product can be obtained
from the system with water heater as the tilt angle of the heater
is approximately at 30 (Fig. 11). Optimum tilt angle for the absorber plate on a south-facing surface is reported as /  34 ( 2
degree Antalya) for summer months and  30 for annual average
by Ulgen [37] for a location which has same latitude with Antalya.

=60
0
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

4. Conclusions

Day
Fig. 9. Variation of daily clean water production with water heater tilt angle.

200

Annual clean water (kg/year)

190

180

170

160

150

140
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Tilt angle ( )
Fig. 10. Variation of annual clean water production with air heater tilt angle.

A theoretical study is conducted to investigate the effects of the

various operating and design parameters, such as air mass ow
rate, feed water mass ow rate, cooling water mass ow rate,
cooling water temperature and collector tilt angle, on clean water
production rate of the closed wateropen air cycled humidicationdehumidication desalination system under the climatological conditions of Antalya, Turkey.
It is observed that water heating has a major importance on
clean water production. This is due to the fact that heat capacity
of water is higher than that of air. This means that heating of air
with solar air heater does not lead to any signicant improvement
on clean water production as it is compared to heating of the water
with solar water heater.
Clean water production is positively affected by the increasing
air mass ow rate and feed water mass ow rate. However, there
is an optimum point for air mass ow rate and after that point
an increase in air mass ow rate certainly results in a decrease in
clean water production. Thus, air mass ow rate needs to be limited. Increasing air mass ow rate beyond the certain value results
in a decrease in clean water production.
Daily clean water production can be enhanced by 24-h operation instead of sunrise to sunset operation and annual clean water
production can be yielded about 12 tons of clean water over the
specied operating parameters.
In addition to that collector tilt angle affects the amount of
clean water production. The maximum amount of annual clean
water yield is obtained as the collector tilt angle is approximately
adjusted to angle of latitude.

1.25

x 10

Annual clean water (kg/year)

4.1. Future works

A mathematical model is developed to examine the inuences
of operating parameters on the performance of the HDH desalination system powered by solar energy. A set of governing equations
is solved simultaneously by fourth order RungeKutta method
with specied initial conditions. In the future works, the model
will be improved to conduct a parametric study on the system in
question in terms of the thermo-economic aspect. The pumping
power required to overcome the pressure drop along the ow
direction in all the system components needs to be computed for
thermo-economic evaluation and this will help us to decide
whether the system is feasible or not.

1.2

1.15

1.1
20

30

40

50

60

70

Acknowledgement

Tilt angle ( )
Fig. 11. Variation of annual clean water production with water heater tilt angle.

The authors are grateful to the Turkish State Meteorological

Service and Mr. Murat Gler for providing meteorological data.

_ Solmus / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 568575

C. Yldrm, I.

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