Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Conversion and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman Achievement of humidification and dehumidification desalination system by utilizing a hot water sprayer and ultrasound waves techniques Ali I. Shehata a , A.E. Kabeel b, ⁎ , Mohamed M. Khairat Dawood c , Mohamed M. Abo Elazm a , Abdalla M. Abdalla c , Ahmed Mehanna a a Mechanical Engineering Department, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt b Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt c Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Evacuated glass solar collector Humidification and dehumidification Desalination and PCM ABSTRACT An experimental investigation on the solar system for water desalination was conducted according to the methodology of humidification-dehumidification. Tests have been properly designed and constructed to effi- ciently assess the productivity of fresh water during the three summer months under local weather conditions of Alexandria, Egypt. The heated air is humidified through two sequent stages, the primary stage is achieved through employing a heated water spatter from the evacuated solar collector. The Further stage is employing an ultrasonic technique for its highly efficient humidification rate. The findings of fresh water output rate is affected by two main parameters; firstly the mass flow rates of both air and water spray, secondly solar radiation. Furthermore, an investigation of heated water spray flow rate over the total flow rate at four values of 0.175, 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3were done respectively. The maximum amount of daily productivity reaches to 44.8 kg/day with mass flow rate of 0.46 kg/s for air, while hot water spray ratio of 0.3. The ultrasonic humidifier improves the daily productivity by 9.3% at 0.24 kg/s and 14.6% at the maximum value of the air mass flow rate 0.46 kg/s. Economic analysis showed that the fresh water cost is about 0.0144 USD/L. 1. Introduction Water is the major key of life. Currently, freshwater scarcity and the increased water demand for population, industrialization and urbani- zation in many parts of the world are two of the most significant pro- blems worldwide [1–3]. Owing to high rates of water salinity, most of the water on Earth is hard to be used instantly for consumption for fresh water is available only in very small amounts, where it is only used as potable water [4,5]. World consumption of water is very large amounts and spreads out in different applications and industries [6]. Water treatment cost is one of the biggest obstacles that stand up to the technology of freshwater production. The techniques of separating distillate water from seawater were achieved by using different systems i.e. the multi-effect evaporator, the multi-stage flash and humidifica- tion-dehumidification method (HDH) [7–10]. Different studies have reviewed the various technologies used for the HDH water desalination systems [11,12].Clearly, the water desalination processes are mainly categorized into two groups; thermal as well as membrane processes. Moreover, HDH systems rely on the main para- meters as the form of energy, cycle structure and arrangement according to the following types; the first one is a) closed air/open water, the second type is b) closed water system and the third type is c) open air/open water system. Due to different features and advantages of HDH process among the other desalination technologies, it is supposed to be the most efficient method for desalination [13–17]. Theoretically, Mohamed and el-Min- shawy [12] investigated the utilization of the heat from the earth as a heat source for heating the sea-water. The outcomes demonstrate that, the best ratio of salted water (sea/ocean-water) flow rate compared to the mass flow of the air was 1.5 to 2.5. The humidification process uses different techniques like, spray towers [18–20], bubble columns [21,22], filled bed towers in addition to the wetted-wall towers [23–27]. Many researchers have designed HDH desalination system and there target was to reduce the power consumption [28–30].Locally available packed bed tower is utilized to examine temperature effectiveness of the air on fresh water output. Outcomes have demonstrated greatest measure of freshwater0.67 Kg/h. While, HDH system combined with a solar air heater have been investigated experimentally and numerically for single and double passes collectors [31–33]. The results showed that double pass air heaters enhanced the system’s production by 8–15% in comparison to a single pass air heater under the same conditions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112142 Received 19 July 2019; Received in revised form 30 September 2019; Accepted 1 October 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: kabeel6@f-eng.tanta.edu.eg (A.E. Kabeel). Energy Conversion and Management 201 (2019) 112142 0196-8904/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T