Ensuring water and energy security for the growing global population is a challenge that aggravates several folds if in water-scarce regions, accustomed to prevailing hot climates and coupled with the increasing per capita demand of these resources. Furthermore, in hot and arid regions, the largest portion of energy is consumed by air-conditioning in buildings. Similarly, fulfilling the water needs in water-scarce regions also consumes a large amount of energy. The consequence of this high energy and water demand are significant greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. In this context, this study presents an integrated solution to support water security by reclaiming wastewater, and energy security by shifting the air-conditioning load from electricity to low-grade thermal energy. Although the proposed system is globally applicable, it is specifically valuable in hot and arid climates. The system harnesses solar energy using Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETCs) and produces clean water and conditioned air. Besides ETCs, the system is composed of an absorption cooling system, air humidification unit, three pumps and a blower. The unique features of the proposed system include the production of conditioned air at constant temperature and humidity irrespective of the ambient environmental conditions and flexibility of 24 h operations through the TES integration, which decouples the system’s operational energy demand from the available energy’s supply. A comprehensive thermodynamic analysis is conducted, which includes the application of mass balance equations and 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. In addition, the effects of ambient environmental conditions and the available energy on the system’s performance are studied and found that the system can operate stably and continuously. At design conditions, with a solar field area of 1,000 m², the system recycles approximately 900 L/day of wastewater and produces 1,418 L/day of clean water. Moreover, considering 24 h of operations, the system provides 8.7 refr. tons of air-conditioning. The system’s overall energy and exergy efficiencies are 14.4% and 0.7%, respectively. Furthermore, in the context of the social perceptions regarding wastewater reuse, a hydrogen cycle-based solution is also presented, which can produce approximately 560 L/day of socially acceptable water.

确保全球不断增长的人口的水和能源安全是一项挑战，如果在缺水地区，习惯了普遍的炎热气候，再加上人均对这些资源的需求不断增加，这一挑战会加剧几倍。此外，在炎热和干旱地区，建筑物中的空调消耗了大部分能源。同样，满足缺水地区的用水需求也消耗大量能源。这种高能源和水需求的后果是大量的温室气体排放和其他污染物。在此背景下，本研究提出了一种综合解决方案，通过回收废水来支持水安全，并通过将空调负荷从电力转移到低品位热能来支持能源安全。虽然提议的系统是全球适用的，它在炎热和干旱的气候中特别有价值。该系统使用真空管收集器 (ETC) 来利用太阳能，并生产清洁水和空调。除ETC外，该系统还由吸收式冷却系统、空气加湿装置、三台泵和一台鼓风机组成。拟议系统的独特功能包括在恒温和恒湿下生产调节空气，而不受周围环境条件的影响，并且通过 TES 集成实现 24 小时运行的灵活性，从而将系统的运行能源需求与可用能源供应分离。进行了全面的热力学分析，其中包括应用质量平衡方程和热力学第一和第二定律。此外，研究了周围环境条件和可用能量对系统性能的影响，发现系统可以稳定连续运行。在设计条件下，太阳场面积为 1,000 m^{如图 2 所示}，该系统每天可回收约 900 升废水并产生 1,418 升/天的清洁水。此外，考虑到 24 小时的操作，系统提供 8.7 参考。吨空调。该系统的整体能量和火用效率分别为 14.4% 和 0.7%。此外，在社会对废水再利用的看法的背景下，还提出了基于氢循环的解决方案，该解决方案可以生产约 560 升/天的社会可接受的水。