A solar desalination system: Exergetic performance assessment

[Display omitted] •A solar operated desalination system is investigated.•Vacuum condition, separate air-cooled condenser and batch-wise operation are applied.•Extensive energy and exergy analysis is performed.•Sources of deficiencies are highlighted.•Improvement potentials rates are explored and enhancement possibilities are identified. This paper presents a detailed thermodynamic assessment of a solar operated desalination system through exergy analysis. This system operates under vacuum condition and is equipped with an air-cooled condenser. The thermodynamic model of this system is developed, implemented in a MATLAB code and solved iteratively to investigate the influence of design and operational parameters. A spectrum of the thermodynamic model includes rates of energy streams, exergy streams, exergy destructions and improvement potentials. The outputs of thermodynamic model, namely improvement potential rates, are employed to explore enhancement of current design of the desalination system. The results of this investigation reveals that, an increase in absorptivity of basin base by 12% improves the productivity, energy and exergy efficiencies of the desalination system by 27%, 25% and 39%, respectively. In respect of improvement potential rates, the higher value is attributed to the basin base. It is shown that the reduction of heat losses from basin walls by 75% increases the productivity and exergy efficiency of the desalination system by 87% and 152%, respectively.