Abstract
The alarming water and energy crisis in many regions of the world can be eased by combining renewable energy with desalination technologies. The ADIRA project funded by the EU looked for demonstrating the feasibility of water desalination in areas around the Mediterranean by installing a number of autonomous desalination systems (ADS) which are able to convert brackish or seawater into potable water for the needs of small communities. Within the activities of the ADIRA project a reverse osmosis unit powered by photovoltaic electricity was installed in a village in the northern part of Jordan with a capacity of 0.5 m3/day. The system was composed of a softener, reverse osmosis unit, PV panels (432 Wp) and storage batteries. Residential type “OSMONICS” membrane (TFM-100) was utilized in the RO unit. Field tests were performed on brackish water (1700 mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS)). This paper sheds the light on the process flow diagram, sizing of the system main components and presents some of the results obtained.
Highlights
Small capacity desalination units utilizing the reverse osmosis (RO) technology and powered by photovoltaic (PV) cells, is a potential solution for providing freshwater to small comminutes in isolated arid areas that have 1) saline water problems; 2) no access to the electricity grid; and 3) plenty solar resources
Options of PV-RO configurations are available to overcome the intermittent nature of solar power, these are: 1) Use of fossil fuel to make up the gaps, 2) store the solar energy, 3) run the desalination plant intermittently
The effect of feed temperature on both of recovery and salt rejection are illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, respectively
Summary
Small capacity desalination units utilizing the reverse osmosis (RO) technology and powered by photovoltaic (PV) cells, is a potential solution for providing freshwater to small comminutes in isolated arid areas that have 1) saline water problems; 2) no access to the electricity grid; and 3) plenty solar resources. Options of PV-RO configurations are available to overcome the intermittent nature of solar power, these are: 1) Use of fossil fuel to make up the gaps (grid-connected systems), 2) store the solar energy, 3) run the desalination plant intermittently. Numerous renewable energy-powered RO plants, primarily PV-battery systems of small to medium capacity (0.5 to 50 m3/day), have been built in different locations of the world. Herold and Neskakis [2] presented a small PV-driven reverse osmosis desalination plant on the island of Gran Canaria with an average daily drinking water production of 0.8 - 3 m3/d. The specific energy consumption of this system was considered high with 16 $/m3 production cost
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