Selecting efficient side of thermoelectric in pyramid-shape solar desalination units incorporated phase change material (PCM), nanoparticle, turbulator with battery storage powered by photovoltaic

The poor people have no other medicine but only hope in developing countries that faces with lack of drinkable water. Solar desalination with various configurations considered as a promising method to address this global issue. One of the most emerging important modifications is utilizing thermoelectric modules (TEM). The purpose of this study is to elucidate the most efficient side of thermoelectric in two solar stills in a comparative study. Both systems used phase change materials (PCM), nano-paint, and turbulator to maximize the performance. The first system equipped with thermoelectric heating modules (TEHM) in the basin while the second system used thermoelectric cooling modules (TECM) on glass. A comprehensive assessment based on energy, exergy, productivity, heat-transfer, economic and environmental parameters is performed. Findings revealed that the system equipped with TEHM has superiority in all aspects compare to TECM. The TEHM-system has nearly 20% and 7% higher daily energy and exergy efficiency rather than TECM-system. Furthermore, productivity of the TEHM-system compare to TECM-system improved by about 78.8%. From economic viewpoint the cost of produced water for systems with TEHM and TECM assessed by about 0.0127 and 0.023 $/Liter respectively. Environmental analysis showed the rate of CO2, SO2 and NO_x mitigation for TEHM is 11,874, 90.187, 34.571 kg while for TECM it was 4664, 35.426, 13.580 kg respectively. Eventually, it was concluded that PCM has synergistic effect on impact of turbulator on productivity, whereas the rates of improvement for TEHM-system and TECM-system with and without PCM were 2.7%, 4.6% and 2%, 3.5% respectively.