Photovoltaic thermal collectors: Reverse osmosis desalination system as an application

Abstract

Solar energy presents one of the frequent used energy resources to desalinate water especially with reverse osmosis desalination process. Photovoltaic thermal collector (PV/T) is a hybrid generator which converts solar radiation into useful electric and thermal energies simultaneously. This paper gathers all PV/T submodels and reverse osmosis desalination model in order to form a unique dynamic model that reveals PVT based reverse osmosis desalination interactions. As the system is a multi-input/output/output system, a state space model based on energy balance equations is developed in order to analyze and assess the parameters behaviors and correlations of the system constituents. The model simulation is performed using LabVIEW software. The simulation reveals the influence of heating feed water on the process efficiency and the afforded energetic gain by the coolant fluid circulation.