A new heat pump-operated solar desalination unit integrated with an air recirculating room

In this paper, a new study was presented studying the effect of coupling a solar still and a heat pump to improve the performance of a solar still. Two setups of solar stills were considered one conventional and one modified using a heat pump coupled with a room containing a Trombe wall to hit two birds with one stone using the effect of cooling and condensing. Besides, some parameters were studied such as the heat pump compressor On and Off duration effect, water depth effect, and the cooling effect for the integrated room. Energy, exergy, and cost analysis were concluded in the manuscript. The findings revealed that, for a water depth of 15 mm and a compressor operation of 55 min. On and5 min. Off, the total amount of water produced was 9.896 L/m², which represents an improvement of roughly 148.39 % compared to the conventional one. Furthermore, the daily exergy and thermal efficiency increase was evaluated as 49.86 and 82.78 %, respectively. Also, cost decreased by around 4.73 % and was computed as 0.0141 $/L. Finally, the integrated room of the Trombe wall system had a significant benefit since, during the hottest hour (1 P.M.), the cooling effect was 12.8 °C below the ambient, resulting in a temperature drop of over 30.4 %.