@article{scholars18172, doi = {10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138528}, note = {cited By 1}, title = {Assessing the performance, sustainability, and economic viability of a photovoltaic-based solar desalination system for water scarce regions}, volume = {421}, journal = {Journal of Cleaner Production}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Solar desalination is gaining increasing attention as a sustainable solution to address water scarcity in many regions. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of various aspects of solar desalination systems, including distillate quality, cost estimation, efficiency, and performance comparison. The research involved developing a photovoltaic-based solar desalination system and investigating its distillate quantity and quality, demonstrating its improvement over the conventional system (solar still which comprises a basin and a glass cover) and similar research. A pretreatment system was incorporated to produce a cleaner distillate over conventional solar stills. The results showed an improvement in distillate quantity from 4.7 L/m2 day to 19.7 L/m2 day, for the conventional and modified systems respectively. The pretreatment system enhances the distillate quality with a range of 10{\^a}??55 in certain parameters. Cost estimation analysis revealed the distillate cost for the traditional and improved systems are 0.041 and 0.091 /L respectively. A comparison with other studies highlighted the remarkable efficiency of the present study with an average improvement of 30. It is recommended that future research should be focused on integrating pre-treatment systems, optimizing distillate cost, improving the performance of the conventional system, exploring efficiency enhancements, conducting comparative studies, performing techno-economic analysis, and scaling up. In conclusion, this work contributes to the understanding of desalination systems that use solar energy, their performance, and cost-effectiveness. {\^A}{\copyright} 2023 Elsevier Ltd}, url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85169046256&doi=10.1016\%2fj.jclepro.2023.138528&partnerID=40&md5=8fe4e130b37ac444a980aff1e720c47d}, author = {Isah, A. S. and Takaijudin, H. B. and Mahinder Singh, B. S. and Abubakar, U. A. and Mohammad, S. J. and Oladoyin abimbola, T.}, keywords = {Cost benefit analysis; Cost estimating; Desalination; Distillation; Economic analysis; Quality control; Solar energy; Solar heating; Solar power generation; Water conservation; Water filtration; Water quality; Water supply, Performance; Photovoltaic systems; Pretreatment systems; Safe and sustainable water supply; Safe water; Solar desalination systems; Sustainable water supply; Water quality assessments; Water stress; Water stress region, Cost effectiveness} }