The technique of desalination seawater by humidification dehumidification process is considered a promising method for small capacity production plants. This process has many advantages such as operation at low temperature, ability to use the renewable energy sources and requirements of low technology level. The current work presents the results of a study on humidification dehumidification desalination system using the solar energy, in addition to a developed mathematical model consisting of the energy equations of each component to simulate the experimental work. The results show that there is a good agreement between the theoretical and experimental work. The results also reveal that there are effective values for the mass flow rate of air, mass flow rate ratio, and mass flow rate of feed water. The average productivity of the desalination system is 2.45 kg/h and the estimated cost per 1 L of fresh water is 0.047 US$. Finally, the results obtained from the present work are acceptable among those of previous studies. Published by Elsevier Ltd.