solar powered desalination final

Solar Powered Desalination

Energy Systems – Fall 2004Devyn Haycox & Jeff Taisch


World Water Resources

Salt Water

Fresh Water The Worlds Water 97% Sea Water 3% Fresh Water

California Coastlinehttp://www.windycityart.com/californiawallpaper/ocean%20wallpaper.jpg


World Fresh Water Resources

Ice

Ground Water

Riparian Areas

The Worlds Fresh Water 77% Ice 22% Ground Water 1% Rivers, Lakes and Streams


Desalination

The separation and removal of ions, salts and other dissolved solids from water. Heat Based Membrane Based

Evaporation pool (Saudi Arabia)http://www.cea.fr/gb/publications/Clefs44/an-clefs44/clefs4481a.html

Topic Desalination powered by

renewable energy using photovoltaic cells, possibly in conjunction with a fuel cell.


Photovoltaic cellshttp://www.greenfield-hydroponics.com/

Motivation People need access to clean

drinking water

1/3 of the world population lacks this access

This is expected to affect 2/3 of the population within 20 years


Water scarcityhttp://news.bbc.co.uk

Research Question

Is it possible to build a small scale low maintenance desalination unit using current methods with power requirements able to be supplied by photovoltaic cells?


Photovoltaic cellhttp://members.aol.com/norfloat/fotsol2.jpg

Corollary Questions What are the power requirements associated with

various desalination methods? What quantity of power can be feasibly supplied by

photovoltaic cells? What are the potential geographic and temporal

limitations? At what scale would various desalination methods be

compatible with PV cells while still producing water at a reasonable rate?


Hypotheses If we use photovoltaic cells then we can replace

conventional power sources using current desalination methods.

If we use photovoltaic cells then we can offset a significant portion of the conventional power requirements using current desalination methods.

Photo voltaic cells are incompatible with current desalination methods.


Strategies For Investigation

Research Current methods Energy requirements Scalability Intermittent power compatibility Cost comparison


Coastlinehttp://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/1996-07-28/ocean-shore.jpg


Strategies For InvestigationCalculations and analyses

Comparison of energy requirements with power output of various PV cells

Array size Water production rate Water quality Effective operational range variations with time Market analysis


Strategies For Investigation

Conceptual unit design and construction Schematic Product design Prototype construction

Example of a desalination schematichttp://www.commonwealthknowledge.net/Desalntn/binfds3.jpg


Current Desalination Research As fresh water scarcity concerns have risen, research

and development in desalination has increased A large portion of the research is being done in the

United States, the Middle East, and Japan The most commonly used desalination method is

multi-flash distillation The most commonly used solar powered desalination

method is passive evaporation


Current Desalination Research Examples Boehner discusses solar powered distillation

desalination using large scale plants using a low technology intensive system

His system is 100% powered by the sun but is an example of passive distillation


Current Desalination Research Examples El-Nashar is a researcher in the UAE working on

a solar assisted vacuum freezing ejector adsorption system with a million gallon a day capacity

This is an example of a system in which solar power can only supply a portion of the energy requirements needed.


Looking Towards The Future Due to the impending global water scarcity crisis,

many human rights organizations are funding research on desalination in order to provide people with adequate drinking water.

Everyone need waterhttp://news.bbc.co.uk

solar powered desalination final

Science

current desalination

various desalination

desalination schematichttp

power requirements able

quantity of power

conventional power sources

photo voltaic cells

research questionis