The deficiency of potable water resources and energy supply is emerging as a significant and concerning obstacle to sustainable development. Solar and waste heat-powered humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems become essential due to the severe impacts of global warming and water shortages. This problem highlights the need to apply boosted water desalination solutions. Desalination is a capital-intensive process that demands considerable energy, predominantly sourced from fossil fuels worldwide, posing a significant carbon footprint risk. HDH is a very efficient desalination method suitable for remote areas with moderate freshwater requirements for domestic and agricultural usage. Several operational and maintenance concerns are to blame. The flow and thermal balances of humidifiers and dehumidifiers under the right conditions are crucial for system efficiency. These systems comprise a humidifier and dehumidifier, energy foundations for space or process heating and electricity generation, fluid transfer or efficiency enhancement accessories, and measurement-control devices. All technologies that enhance the performance of HDH systems are elucidated in this work. These are utilizing efficient components, renewable energy, heat recovery via multi-effect and multi-stage processes, waste heat-powered, and accelerating humidification and dehumidification processes through pressure variation or employing heat pumps, in addition to exergy and economical analyses. According to the present work, the seawater HDH system is feasible for freshwater generation. Regarding economics and gain output ratio, humidification–dehumidification is a viable approach for decentralized small-scale freshwater production applications, but it needs significant refinement. System productivity of fresh water is much higher with integrated solar water heating than with solar air heating. The HDH offers the lowest water yield cost per liter and ideal system productivity when paired with a heat pump. The suggested changes aim to enhance system and process efficiency, reducing electrical energy consumption and cost-effective, continuous, decentralized freshwater production. This thorough analysis establishes a foundation for future research on energy and exergy cycles based on humidification and dehumidification.
