Performance improvement of solar still by using hybrid nanofluids

The biggest shortcoming of conventional solar still is its limited productivity. In this work, improvement of solar still performance using two hybrid nanofluids is examined. Use of hot water and two conventional nanofluids were also utilized to study the improvement of the performance of solar still. Hybrid nanofluids, hot water or conventional nanofluids were linked to the solar system with heat exchanger placed at the bottom of the basin of the solar still. Pure desalinated water yield, the first and the second law efficiencies of the solar still with hybrid nanofluid were observed through modeling. Utilization of heat exchanger with hot water improved the solar still performance. Conventional nanofluids showed better performance than hot water. The best performance is obtained with the use of hybrid nanofluids. The yield, thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency with water–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ hybrid nanofluid resulted in 4.99 kg m⁻² day⁻¹, 37.76% and 0.82%, respectively. The basin water depth, nanofluid flow rate, inlet heat exchanger temperature of the nanofluid and nanoparticle concentration played vital role together with solar radiation and ambient temperature to improve the performance.