Comprehensive 4E analysis of cost-effective, integrated hemispherical solar stills with nano-coated stainless-steel spherical-coils enhanced with magnetic round fins

IF 6.2 2区工程技术 Q1 MECHANICS

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-12 DOI:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2026.110770

K. Harby , Moustafa M. Aboelmaaref , Hassan M. Hussein Farh , Saad Mekhilef , Abdullrahman A. Al-Shamma'a

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Abstract

Freshwater access in remote areas and off-grid sites is a significant global concern. Solar distillation is a hopeful renewable solution, but traditional solar stills have drawbacks in terms of low productivity and narrow energy use. This work presents a novel hemispherical solar distiller combined with magnetically enhanced, nanoparticle-coated stainless-steel spherical scrubber coils (SSC), establishing a synergistic design aimed at maximizing water production and sustainability. A thorough 4E analysis-covering energy, exergy, economic, and environmental dimensions- is presented for quantitative evaluation of the system performance under real realistic climatic conditions. Three identical hemispherical distillers were fabricated and tested side by side under identical weather conditions, along with a standard still (THSS) for comparison. The proposed designs consisted of the following: using eight equidistant spherical stainless-steel scrubber coils (MHS-SSC), embedding alnico magnetic round fins inside each spherical coil (MHS-SSC/MF), and coating black Ag-nanoparticles on the coils wrapped around the magnets (MHS-SSC-CN/MF), and their performance was compared directly to that of THSS unit. Results showed that the combined design MHS-SSC-CN/RMF had the highest productivity of 5901 mL/m²·day and secured a thermal efficiency of 54.60%, reflecting productivity and efficiency gains of 60.30 and 48.40%, respectively. Using the proposed configurations, it was shown that the cost of yield per liter of freshwater decreased from 0.022 to 0.015 $/L, reducing the payback period from 4.40 to 2.81 years, and up to 1.305 kg/yr annual CO₂ emission mitigation, with superior environmental sustainability indicators. These results confirm the technical feasibility and economic viability of the proposed designs and underline its potential environmental benefits, offering a scalable solution for sustainable distillation.

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综合4E分析的成本效益，集成半球形太阳能蒸馏器与纳米涂层不锈钢球形线圈增强磁性圆鳍

偏远地区和离网站点的淡水获取是全球关注的一个重大问题。太阳能蒸馏是一种有希望的可再生解决方案，但传统的太阳能蒸馏器在生产率低和能源使用范围窄方面存在缺点。这项工作提出了一种新型的半球形太阳能蒸馏器，结合了磁性增强的纳米颗粒涂层不锈钢球形洗涤器线圈（SSC），建立了一种旨在最大化水产量和可持续性的协同设计。全面的4E分析-涵盖能源，能源，经济和环境方面-提出了在真实的现实气候条件下对系统性能的定量评估。三个相同的半球形蒸馏器制造和测试并排在相同的天气条件下，与标准蒸馏器（THSS）进行比较。提出的设计包括：使用8个等距球形不锈钢洗涤器线圈（MHS-SSC），在每个球形线圈内嵌入铝镍基磁性圆鳍（MHS-SSC/MF），并在包裹磁体的线圈上涂覆黑色银纳米颗粒（MHS-SSC- cn /MF），并将其性能与THSS装置进行直接比较。结果表明，组合设计的MHS-SSC-CN/RMF的产率最高，为5901 mL/m2·d，热效率为54.60%，产率和效率增益分别为60.30%和48.40%。采用所提出的配置方案，每升淡水产量成本从0.022美元/升降至0.015美元/升，投资回收期从4.40年降至2.81年，年CO₂排放量减少1.305 kg/年，具有良好的环境可持续性指标。这些结果证实了所建议设计的技术可行性和经济可行性，并强调了其潜在的环境效益，为可持续蒸馏提供了可扩展的解决方案。

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来源期刊

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 工程技术-力学

CiteScore

11.00

自引率

10.00%

发文量

648

审稿时长

32 days

期刊介绍： International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer serves as a world forum for the rapid dissemination of new ideas, new measurement techniques, preliminary findings of ongoing investigations, discussions, and criticisms in the field of heat and mass transfer. Two types of manuscript will be considered for publication: communications (short reports of new work or discussions of work which has already been published) and summaries (abstracts of reports, theses or manuscripts which are too long for publication in full). Together with its companion publication, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, with which it shares the same Board of Editors, this journal is read by research workers and engineers throughout the world.