Effect of dissimilarity of N and mass flow rate on yearly overall energy, exergy, and efficiency of PVT-FPC included dual-slope solar desalting units

This research paper investigates the impact of variation in the number of collectors (N) and mass flow rate (ṁfr) on yearly overall energy, exergy, and efficiency of a dual-slope solar desalting unit incorporated with N number of photovoltaic thermal flat plate collectors (NPVT-FPC-DSU). The denouement of this research work will be useful for the designer and installer of such a system in deciding the number of collectors according to the requirement. An exhaustive calculation is carried out considering all four kinds of climatic conditions in each month of the year for the weather of New Delhi, India. Fundamental equations of NPVT-FPC-DSU and all pertinent sets of values have been dined to the data processing code developed in MATLAB to estimate annual freshwater production, energy, thermal and electrical exergies, overall energy, exergy, and efficiency. Finally, values of these parameters except annual overall electrical energy recede with the augmentation in ṁfr value, and they become approximately constant exceeding ṁfr value of 0.10 kg/s. Conversely, an increase in the values of the above-mentioned parameters has been obtained with the increase in the value of N. Moreover, the optimum value of N is found to be 4 and 8 from yearly overall energy and exergy efficiency viewpoints, respectively. HIGHLIGHTS Effect of variation of mass flow rate and N on annual overall energy, exergy, and efficiency of dual-slope active solar still have been investigated.; The analysis consists of all kinds of climatic conditions.; The optimum values of N from annual overall exergy and energy efficiency viewpoints are found to be 8 and 4, respectively.; Outcome of the research will be useful for the designer and installers of dual-slope active solar stills.