Solar Powered Desalination

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Solar Powered Desalination
Energy Systems Fall 2004Devyn Haycox Jeff
Taisch
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Solar Powered Desalination

• The Worlds Water
• 97 Sea Water
• 3 Fresh Water

California Coastline http//www.windycityart.com/c
aliforniawallpaper/ocean20wallpaper.jpg
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Solar Powered Desalination

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

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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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
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Solar Powered Desalination

• Topic
• Desalination powered by renewable energy using
  photovoltaic cells, possibly in conjunction with
  a fuel cell.

Photovoltaic cells http//www.greenfield-hydroponi
cs.com/
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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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 scarcity http//news.bbc.co.uk
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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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 cell http//members.aol.com/norfloat/
fotsol2.jpg
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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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?

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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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.

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Solar Powered Desalination

• Strategies For Investigation
• Research
• Current methods
• Energy requirements
• Scalability
• Intermittent power compatibility
• Cost comparison

Coastline http//pantransit.reptiles.org/images/19
96-07-28/ocean-shore.jpg
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Solar Powered Desalination

• Strategies For Investigation
• Calculations 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

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Solar Powered Desalination

• Strategies For Investigation
• Conceptual unit design and construction
• Schematic
• Product design
• Prototype construction

Example of a desalination schematic http//www.com
monwealthknowledge.net/Desalntn/binfds3.jpg
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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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

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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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

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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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.

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Solar Powered Desalination

• 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 water http//news.bbc.co.uk