Geothermal-solar integrated groundwater desalination system: Current status and future perspective

Abstract

Water is the one of fundamental needs of each living thing on the earth. Yet, the most recent couple of decades the quality and the amount of consumable water are diminishing because of different contamination and environmental change. Accessible water is either present as seawater or chunks of ice in the Polar Regions and as groundwater. About 97% of the world's water is salty and the rest is fresh water. Horticulture uses two-third of accessible freshwater. Under 1% freshwater is accessible for human scopes. To satisfy the demand for freshwater we need to do desalination of seawater or brackish water. Two most desalination methods use for seawater or brackish water, Thermal or Phase change process which involves, Multi-effect distillation (MED), Multi-stage flash distillation (MSFD), Vapor compressor desalination (VCD), etc. and another one is membrane-based, such as Reverse Osmosis (RO), Electrodialysis (ED) and so forth. In any case, the energy use is high in those processes that way we need the elective sources of energy for driven desalination plants. Sustainable power sources can satisfy the energy necessity for desalination technologies. The primary sources of renewable energy are geothermal, sun-powered, and wind. This review paper is giving an overview of conventional desalination technology and how the renewable source integrated desalination framework works particularly, Geothermal energy, Solar energy-based desalination technologies. Low enthalpy geothermal liquid with less than 130 °C temperature used for desalination of seawater and geothermal energy has advantages among all is that first it doesn't rely upon weather conditions and second heat flux is constant since the sun oriented and wind energy relies upon both. A review of the geothermal and solar potential for desalination in various nations are likewise outlined.