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Energy for water management and production

Alternative water production

José Luis Fernández Zayas

3 October 2008

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Underwater stream electrical generators

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Energy islands

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• Passive direct solar water desalination

• PV powered RO water desalination

• Water condensation from the air.

Three alternative processes will be mentioned:

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Passive direct solar water desalination

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Passive solar water distillation may be a viable solution to combine with other small village requirements such as vegetable production.

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Passive costs

• For a typical 5,000 liter (1,200 gal) per day production of pure water, some 1,000 m2 of solar panels are needed

• Each m2 costs from 40 to 80 US $

• Including land preparation and piping, the whole lot would cost some US$ 91,000

• In 10 years of operation, the cost of each cubic meter produced would be some 5 US$.

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PV powered RO water desalination

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PV systems (autonomous and grid connected)

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• A typical 12,000 gpd RO commercial system A typical 12,000 gpd RO commercial system would cost some US$ 3,000 currentlywould cost some US$ 3,000 currently

• The 1 KWp power requirement could be The 1 KWp power requirement could be supplied by a commercial (100 msupplied by a commercial (100 m22) PV panel ) PV panel that would cost, all peripherals included, that would cost, all peripherals included, some US$ 12,000some US$ 12,000

• Assuming the same cost distribution used Assuming the same cost distribution used for the passive option, this one would for the passive option, this one would produce water at less than one dollar per produce water at less than one dollar per cubic metercubic meter

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Land requirements

• A comparable (12,000 gpd) RO system would require about 1 KWp total power

• If produced in a solar panel, it would require about 200 m2 (1/10 previous).

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Water condensed from the air

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Condensed water costs

• Several manufacturers worldwide with very varying power requirements

• System really sensitive to atmospheric water content

• Scientific breakthrough recently announced

• In 12,000 gpd plants, probable costs would be between 1-5 US$/m3.

22/22jfernandezz@ii.unam.mx