Experimental Analysis of Sustainability of Passive Solar Still with Nanoparticles Operating at Various Angles of Glass Cover

ABSTRACT

The present paper shows the economic viability and environment suitability of the nanoparticles and plain water-based solar. This is the first attempt to investigate the economic and environmental analysis of solar still using copper oxide and zinc oxide nanofluids. The experimentation was conducted during the winter season at three different water depths (4, 5, and 10 cm) and three different tilt angles (41°, 26°, and 11°). Higher productivity is obtained at a higher angle and lower water depth. Hence, the CO₂ and cost analysis of SS with CuO nanoparticles, ZnO nanoparticles, and SS without nanoparticles is carried out at 41° tilt and 4 cm water depth only. The results indicated that the one-liter price of freshwater equals 2.96 Rs/L, 3.44 Rs/L, and 2.38 Rs/L for the still with plain water, ZnO and CuO nanofluids, respectively. ZnO and CuO nanofluids-based SS increased productivity by 42.28% and 107.71%, respectively, compared to the conventional SS. Energy payback time of conventional SS, SS with ZnO and CuO nanoparticles is 2.18, 3.30, and 2.26 years, respectively. ZnO and CuO nanoparticles augmented SS mitigates 7.75 and 12.32 tons of CO₂ in its life time while the conventional SS without nanoparticles mitigates 5.97 tons of CO₂ in its lifetime. In terms of economic and environmental analyses, it is concluded that solar still performs better with CuO nanofluids than with ZnO nanofluids and plain water.

KEYWORDS:

• Nanoparticles
• cost analysis
• CO₂ analysis
• distilled water
• solar still

Highlights

• The paper shows the CO₂ and cost analysis of solar still (SS) with CuO and ZnO nanofluids.

• Solar still with CuO nanofluids gives better performance than SS with ZnO and plain water in terms of economic and environmental analysis.

• The cost of distilled water and CO₂ mitigation mainly depends on the materials and size of the setup.

• Solar still using CuO and ZnO nanofluids mitigate 106.36% and 29.81% more CO₂ than plain water.

• When SS operates with CuO nanofluids, the price of freshwater is reduced by 0.58 Rs/L compared to SS without nanofluids.

Acknowledgments

NPIU has provided the fund under the CRS-TEQIP project for this work. The authors are grateful to NPIU and AICTE. ID Number: 1-5772916950.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the All India Council for Technical Education [1-5772916950].