Experimental study of a bubble basin intended for water desalination system

One new technique that can increase the water evaporation rate in the solar still is to generate air bubble through its base. The aim of this research work is to perform a design basis for a modified solar still using air bubbling through water layer and to determine the heat and mass transfer coefficients between air bubbles and water in the basin. An experimental test set-up was fabricated and assembled. The process consists of air bubbles passing through the base of the basin to the seawater under some experimental conditions of airflow rate, inlet air temperature and humidity, and water temperature and depth. Detailed experiments were carried out at various operating conditions. Within the studies ranges, the results indicate that the water vapor content difference is moderately affected by the water temperature and airflow rate but slightly affected by the water level. The heat and mass transfer coefficients were obtained experimentally and fitted in forms of empirical correlations. The statistical study has shown a good agreement between the model and the experimental measurements, with an average relative error not exceeding 20%. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.