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Photovoltaic modules are impacted by overheating, which degrades their conversion efficiency and shortens their lifespan. This work attempts to study the cooling potential for a hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system by employing CuO and Fe2O3 nanofluids with 0.2% and 0.3% volume fractions (φ), circulated in a heat exchanger attached at the rear side of the PV module to lower the temperature of the PV cells and improve its energy and exergy efficiencies. Consequently, a 2D numerical model was analysed given the energy balance across the PV/T system layers, which is evaluated in line with measured experimental data. The results indicate that the successfully synthesised nanomaterials could improve the performance of the nanofluids and increase the heat exchange between PV/T system layers, reducing the PV cells’ temperature by 23.49% and 34.58% when cooling by CuO and Fe2O3 nanofluids at φ=0.3%. Compared to the uncooled PV module, the electrical efficiency has increased by 9.21% and 10.30%, while thermal efficiency increased by 38.9% and 43.3% under cooling with CuO and Fe2O3 nanofluids, respectively. Thereby, the exergy destruction (exergy losses) and entropy generation have decreased by about 26% and 68% when cooling with Fe2O3 nanofluid, which improved the exergy efficiency by 13% more than CuO nanofluid.

In order to address the limitation of low flux in ultrafiltration (UF), a suitable additive is introduced into the base polymer to modify the membrane morphology, thereby enhancing flux rates. In this study, chamomile leaf nanoparticles (Chm NPs) were investigated as a novel green material for utilizing in UF membrane synthesizes. To enhance comprehension of the influence of Chm on the synthesis of PES UF membranes, a series of membranes were fabricated by including different quantities of Chm into the casting solution; (0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2 wt. %.). The synthesized membranes were fully characterized, through the porosity, pore size, hydrophilicity, membrane morphology, and UF efficiency. Manufactured PES/Chm membranes demonstrated significantly increased permeate water flux (PWF) (up to 498 kg/m2 h), which was four times that of the pristine PES membrane (116 kg/m2 h), besides that the bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Congo red dye (CR) rejection of PES/Chm membranes was still kept high. The enhanced PWF was mostly due to the more porous membrane structure and increased hydrophilicity. Meanwhile, the higher surface hydrophilicity of the PES/Chm membranes resulted in greater antifouling performance and the high flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 93 %. Based on the results of this research, the Chm may be used as a novel green additive with substantial application potential in the fabrication of UF membranes wastewater treatment.

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