Performance of nano-particle assisted phase change materials in a solar desalination system

Liew, Yuin Yue (2022) Performance of nano-particle assisted phase change materials in a solar desalination system. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

The goal of this study is to improve water production by using phase change material as a medium of thermal energy storage, which releases and absorbs energy while solar still exposed to sunlight. However, the weak thermal conductivity of PCM leads to low thermal energy storage capability. As a result, research into nanoparticles is critical. In these experiments, soft paraffin and paraffin wax were first tested to identify the performance of solar still. After that, nanoparticles were added to PCM with better performance to investigate the performance of PCM associated with nanoparticles. Paraffin wax possess better thermal conductivity than soft paraffin and provide a 3.11% higher in efficiency. Aluminium scrap as a replacement of alumina nano-powder did improve the solar still efficiency by 4.10% and give higher water productivity while SS with alumina nano powder was 3.42% higher efficiency. The result showed that for SS with NePCM containing alumina nano powder, SS with NePCM containing aluminium scrap and SS with pure PCM can produce 2.5g, 2.4g and 2.0g of water in RM 1 respectively. The payback period of the solar still without PCM, with pure PCM and NePCM (aluminium scarp w PCM and alumina nano powder with PCM) are 158, 149, 145 and 142 days, respectively. In short, the experiment shows that paraffin wax gives better thermal conductivity and nanoparticles enhanced the PCM thermal conductivity as it gives higher water productivity with less energy.

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