solar

1. Solar Powered Desalination
Energy Systems – Fall 2004
Devyn Haycox & Jeff Taisch

2. Solar Powered Desalination
World Water Resources
Fresh Water The Worlds Water
Salt Water
 97% Sea Water
 3% Fresh Water
California Coastline
http://www.windycityart.com/californiawallpap
er/ocean%20wallpaper.jpg

3. Solar Powered Desalination
World Fresh Water Resources
Ice
Ground Water
Riparian Areas
The Worlds Fresh Water
 77% Ice
 22% Ground Water
 1% Rivers, Lakes and Streams

4. 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

5. Solar Powered Desalination
Topic
 Desalination powered by
renewable energy using
photovoltaic cells, possibly in
conjunction with a fuel cell.
Photovoltaic cells
http://www.greenfield-hydroponics.com/

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. Solar Powered Desalination
Strategies For Investigation
Research
 Current methods
 Energy requirements
 Scalability
 Intermittent power compatibility
 Cost comparison
Coastline
http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/1996-07-
28/ocean-shore.jpg

11. 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

12. Solar Powered Desalination
Strategies For Investigation
Conceptual unit design and construction
 Schematic
 Product design
 Prototype construction
Example of a desalination schematic
http://www.commonwealthknowledge.net/Desalntn/binfds3.jpg

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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