Investigation of the parameters influencing the evaporation rate of downward sprayed sea water in solar water desalination.

In this study, the evaporation of injected water droplets, as one of the most important parts of the solar desalination system, was investigated. Elevating the evaporation rate is considered as one of the important points in increasing the efficiency of solar water desalination systems. The effective parameters on evaporation rate and reduction of the droplets’ diameter, which were sprayed in the chamber were investigated using the mathematical model. It should be noted that the effects of different factors mean environmental conditions inside the chamber, such as relative humidity and pressure, as well as the primary conditions of the droplet, including temperature, injection pressure, and initial diameter, were also considered. In this study, the information about a droplet inside the glass chamber in a downward direction at injection pressures of 1, 3 and 5 bar, inlet temperatures of 60°C, 65°C and 70°C and nozzle outlet diameters of 1.1, 1.0 and 0.9 mm was investigated by considering three types of long cone orifice, drilled steel orifice and sapphire orifice nozzle at different relative humidity and pressure values in a glass chamber to determine the favorable conditions for evaporation of saline water and freshwater production. Increasing the availability of freshwater by producing a high-flow rate of vapor is known as the most important achievement in solar water desalination systems. Finally, the best condition for producing freshwater was obtained at the injection pressure of 5 bar, the inlet temperature of 70°C, and the nozzle outlet diameter of 0.9 mm with a discharge coefficient of 0.9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]