Theoretical Simulation of an Innovative Psychometric Solar Water Desalination System Coupled with Heat Pump and Photovoltaic cell

Drinking water of an acceptable quality has become a scarce commodity nowadays. Many parts of the world is currently suffering from shortage of fresh water especially in Africa and the Middle East region where they are struggling to balance declining per capita water supplies with the rapid rising of water demands. This paper presents the results of theoretical simulation of operation for an innovative solar water desalination unit using humidification and dehumidification process coupled with a heat pump and driven by solar photovoltaic panels. A mathematical model describing the system’s operation was developed using a Matlab software to solve the system of governing equations and the experimental results were used to validate numerical predictions. The theoretical values for the total daily distillate output were found to be closely correlated. A solar radiation under the climatic conditions of the Middle East region in spring season was simulated and the simulation model proved that the performance of the system could be improved to produce a considerably higher amount of fresh water where the results demonstrated that, the desalination system could produce up to 50 kg/day of fresh water with overall coefficient of performance (COP) varies between 5.5 to 8. Utilizing the concept of psychometric water desalination in a compact unit coupled with heat pump and PV would have a significant improvement on water production and it can be considered a unique solution for tackling the water scarcity in rural and remote areas in addition to reducing the global warming problems resulting from CO2 emissions. Further research is being performed to improve the system performance of the installation.