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Solar Powered Desalination
Energy Systems – Fall 2004
Devyn Haycox & Jeff Taisch
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Solar Powered Desalination
World Water Resources
Salt Water
Fresh Water The Worlds Water
97% Sea Water
3% Fresh Water
California Coastline
http://www.windycityart.com/californiawallpap
er/ocean%20wallpaper.jpg
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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
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Solar Powered Desalination
DesalinationThe separation and
removal of ions, salts and
other dissolved solidsfrom water.
Heat Based
Membrane Based
Evaporation pool (Saudi Arabia)
http://www.cea.fr/gb/publications/Clefs44/an-
clefs44/clefs4481a.html
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Topic
Desalination powered by
renewable energy using photovoltaic cells, possibly in
conjunction with a fuel cell.
Solar Powered Desalination
Photovoltaic cellshttp://www.greenfield-hydroponics.com/
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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
Solar Powered Desalination
Water scarcity
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Research Question
Is it possible to build a small
scale low maintenancedesalination unit usingcurrent methods with power requirements able to besupplied by photovoltaiccells?
Solar Powered Desalination
Photovoltaic cell
https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0418/5ad705dfd
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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?
Solar Powered Desalination
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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.
Solar Powered Desalination
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Strategies For Investigation
Research Current methods
Energy requirements
Scalability
Intermittent power compatibility
Cost comparison
Solar Powered Desalination
Coastline
http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/1996-07-
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.commonwealthknowledge.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 ismulti-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 daycapacity
This is an example of a system in which solar
power can only supply a portion of the energyrequirements 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 providepeople with adequate drinking water.
Everyone need waterhttp://news.bbc.co.uk