A new type of seawater desalination plants using solar energy

Background. Uneven distribution of fresh water sources on the land surface encourages a search for effective techniques of potable water preparation by desalination of seawater. Hygienic issues of such desalination methods as distillation, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, and ion exchange have been investigated by now and appropriate limitations, requirements, and additional measures to ensure safety of desalinated drinking water have been established. Objective. To summarize and systematize the results of studying characteristics of various methods of seawater desalination for its further use for drinking and household purposes. Materials and methods. We conducted a systematic review of studies published in Russian and in English, found in the PubMed and Web of Science databases, and selected 40 literary sources containing an empirical assessment of effectiveness of seawater desalination and preparation of drinking water. We also scrutinized regulatory documents and guidelines of domestic sanitary legislation. The research results were systematized by the main desalination methods. Results and discussion. We established that the use of seawater for the preparation of fresh water for drinking and household purposes is becoming increasingly widespread around the world. Drinking water obtained from seawater, in all cases, requires additional treatment and measures to optimize its mineral composition and protect against microorganisms. Conclusion. The main challenges of ensuring sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing of the population when using desalinated seawater for drinking and household purposes include selection of a source, arrangement of sites of water intake properly protected from natural and man-made pollution, substantiation of techniques and modes of preliminary preparation of source seawater adequate to its composition, basic desalination, ensuring safety of products of destruction and migration of toxic substances from reagents and materials of desalination plants, additional conditioning with the necessary elements and disinfection of the prepared water, as well as environmental protection from desalination waste.

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Optimization of Energy Efficiency, Operation Costs, Carbon Footprint and Ecological Footprint with Reverse Osmosis Membranes in Seawater Desalination Plants

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes11100781 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 781

Author(s):

Federico Leon ◽

Alejandro Ramos ◽

S. Ovidio Perez-Baez

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Ecological Footprint ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Seawater Desalination ◽

Operation Costs ◽

Private And Public ◽

Desalination Plants ◽

Reverse Osmosis Membranes

This article shows the optimization of the reverse osmosis process in seawater desalination plants, taking the example of the Canary Islands, where there are more than 320 units of different sizes, both private and public. The objective is to improve the energy efficiency of the system in order to save on operation costs as well as reduce the carbon and ecological footprints. Reverse osmosis membranes with higher surface area have lower energy consumption, as well as energy recovery systems to recover the brine pressure and introduce it in the system. Accounting for the operation, maintenance and handling of the membranes is also important in energy savings, in order to improve the energy efficiency. The energy consumption depends on the permeate water quality required and the model of the reverse osmosis membrane installed in the seawater desalination plant, as it is shown in this study.

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A small shipborne desalination plant based on the principle of loop heat pipe

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202016501003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 165 ◽

pp. 01003

Author(s):

Tongyao Miao ◽

Zheng Fang ◽

Lingzhi Feng ◽

Yunhui Peng

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Heat Pipe ◽

Fresh Water ◽

High Energy ◽

Loop Heat Pipe ◽

Seawater Desalination ◽

Low Energy Consumption ◽

New Type ◽

Emergency Equipment ◽

High Energy Consumption

As is well-known, the problem of fresh water has always been a major problem for ocean navigation. The existing marine seawater desalination equipment generally has the disadvantages of large volume, high energy consumption and easy to pollute the environment. Based on this, we proposed a small seawater desalination system based on phase change to enhance heat transfer, which realized low temperature and low energy consumption by using the loop heat pipe technology, a new type of heat sink type spoiler evaporator and an integrated equal-heat plate fin condenser. The device is suitable for islands, fishing boats and other complicated areas where power is scarce and fresh water resources are scarce. It can also be used as fresh water emergency equipment for large ships, saving energy and being portable.

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Hybrid Microencapsulated Phase-Change Material and Carbon Nanotube Suspensions toward Solar Energy Conversion and Storage

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13174401 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 4401

Author(s):

Jun Li ◽

Lisi Jia ◽

Longjian Li ◽

Zehang Huang ◽

Ying Chen

Keyword(s):

Thermal Conductivity ◽

Carbon Nanotube ◽

Solar Energy ◽

Energy Conversion ◽

Solar Energy Conversion ◽

Microencapsulated Phase Change Material ◽

Energy Conversion And Storage ◽

New Type ◽

And Storage ◽

Change Material

In this study, a new type of functional hybrid suspension for solar energy conversion and thermal energy storage was prepared by adding carbon nanotube (CNT) and microencapsulated phase-change material (MEPCM) into deionized water. MEPCM with octadecane as the core material and titania (TiO2) as the shell material was synthesized by the sol–gel method. The MEPCMs were spherical particles with diameters of 2–4 μm, and the thickness of the shell was about 100 nm. The MEPCM achieved better thermal stability and thermal conductivity than the pure octadecane due to the TiO2 shell. The melting and solidification latent heats of the MEPCM were about 154.24 and 154.26 J/g, respectively. The encapsulation efficiency of octadecane was calculated to be 65.84%. Most of all, the novel hybrid CNT and MEPCM suspensions exhibited remarkable dispersion stability owing to the stable reticular structure composed of CNT in the suspension. Compared with pure water, the thermal conductivity, specific heat of the MEPCM/CNT suspension improved by 34.48 and 43.57%, respectively and the photo-thermal conversion efficiency reached a high value of 86.0%. This work provided a new type of hybrid functional suspension towards direct absorption solar collector for solar energy conversion and storage.

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Research on Mode of Solar Automatic Tracker

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.724-725.78 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 724-725 ◽

pp. 78-83

Author(s):

Zhong Ying Yuan

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Solar Energy ◽

Trajectory Tracking ◽

Utilization Rate ◽

The Sun ◽

Automatic Tracking ◽

Tracking Mode ◽

The World ◽

New Type ◽

Solar Tracker

Solar energy, as a new type of energy for sustainable development without pollution, has caught much attention all over the world. Adequately improving the utilization rate of solar illumination is taken as the only means of using solar energy in maximum. This paper introduces two different tracking modes of the solar tracker which can switch automatically: Sensor tracking mode and the sun trajectory tracking mode. These two modes can self-switch and cooperate with each other to achieve high precision of all time automatic tracking.

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