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Go to Editorial ManagerSolar desalination uses solar radiation to convert saline or seawater into clean water and is increasingly crucial due to growing pollution from industrial and automotive sources. Although solar stills offer a sustainable solution, they face challenges in terms of production efficiency. This study presents a new structural design for solar stills, which incorporates advanced insulation materials, a well-designed distillate channel, and an inclined base to enhance productivity. The research explores how different climatic conditions such as wind speed, solar radiation, and atmospheric humidity affect solar still performance. Seven experimental setups were evaluated, comparing traditional inclined stills with advanced closed-loop systems. The results demonstrated that closed-loop systems improved productivity by 28.6% compared to open-loop systems. Additionally, moderate wind speeds increased productivity by 20.82%, while partial cloud cover and light rain decreased productivity by 52.15% and 12.9%, respectively. However, light rain also enhanced condensation efficiency by cooling the glass surface. This study highlights the importance of incorporating environmental factors into the design and optimization of solar still systems for improved performance.
In this work, both energy and exergy analyses have been carried out on General Electric (GE) gas turbine unit found in Khor Al-Zubair gas turbine power plant located in Basra, Iraq. The analysis covers the ISO (international standards organization) operating conditions in addition to actual operating data recorded for one month in hot season July 2016. The feasibility of adopting a vapor compression cycle (VCC) for cooling the intake air is evaluated. Generally, the study reveals an obvious drop off for most plant performance characteristics while operating during the hot season. Energy and exergy analyses show that adopting the vapor compression cycle to enhance Khor Al-Zubair GE unit could improve the power output by 20% and 27% in case of part-load and full-load conditions respectively. Both of first and second law efficiencies could be improved by 3.5% at part- load and 9% at full load. The expected cooling load needed for the unit is in the range of 2697 to 3024.5 TR according to part- load and full-load operation respectively. Only total irreversibility of the unit is expected to increase in case of adopting VCC and this will not impair the improvement in second law efficiency of the unit. Among the unit components, combustion chamber has the largest computed irreversibility. Further improvement is recommended by utilizing the released heat energy to the atmosphere, which is characterized by significant work potential.