Performance optimization study on a novel waste heat flow-based wick-finned distillation system for clean and sustainable pure water production

In this work, a novel wick and copper-finned distillation system has been developed based on the flow of waste heat from a biomass engine to efficiently produce a large amount of pure water to meet sustainable development goals. In this novel design, six copper-made fins are employed at a specific location on the waste heat pipe to boost the evaporation process, and a double-layer wick is employed over the glass to enhance the condensation process, which collectively leads to improved system performance. The performance optimization of the distillation system has been investigated to obtain the maximum mass of distilled water by varying the operating conditions of the input factors. Further, the Box-Behnken Design, Analysis of Variance, and Regression methods are applied to develop the empirical correlations between the input factors and a response parameter. The effects of various input factors on the response parameter are studied by response surface analysis through surface and contour plots. The experimental results revealed that the maximum value of the mass of the distilled water is obtained as 2.407 kg during 100 min of run at 321 °C of waste heat inlet temperature, 45° of glass angle, and 0.08 m of basin water height. Employing wick and copper fins in the distillation system has positively affected the yield of distilled water productionand increases the output from 2.054 kg to 2.407 kg with a 17.18 % improvement at the optimal conditions. It has been suggested that the highest waste heat inlet temperature level needs to be preferred to produce a large amount of distilled water. In contrast, the moderate levels of glass angle and basin water height provide the maximum output. The quadratic correlation is found to be in good agreement with the experimental values, with a maximum error of 12.03 %. The production cost of distilled water from the present system is found to be 1.91 INR/kg (0.023 USD/kg) through economic analysis.