Distilled water production with combination of solar still and thermosyphon heat pipe heat exchanger coupled with indirect water bath heater - Experimental study and thermoeconomic analysis

The aim of this study is to provide a solution for supplying distilled water used in indirect water bath heaters in the pressure reduction stations. A particular type of distilled water production system consists of a typical solar still and a heat pipe heat exchanger was constructed for recovering heat from the exhaust of an indirect gas heater. The system was tested under the climatic conditions of Semnan-Iran. Experimental results showed that in active type, the average daily production rate of distilled water would be 2.06 times higher than passive type. Also, in the proposed system, the average daily energy efficiency and the exergy efficiency would be 65.5% and 41% higher than the passive ones, respectively. The economic analysis showed that, the average CPL value and average exergoeconomic parameters for the active type was 32% higher and 15% lower than the passive ones, respectively. The exergoeconomic parameters for the passive and active types at the best case (5% interest rate, 20 years lifetime and 1 cm water depth), were 0.32 and 0.25 kWh/$ respectively. Furthermore, analysis showed that in average the active type mitigated 104% and 146% more CO2 compared to the passive type for environmental and exergoenvironmental parameters, respectively.