On the feasibility of community-scale photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis desalination systems for remote locations

Bilton, Amy M.; Wiesman, Richard; Arif, Abul Fazal M.; Zubair, Syed M.; Dubowsky, Steven

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.040

Cited by 114 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…al. completed site specific analyses for four brackish water locations and found that in each case the cost per cubic meter of water produced from a reverse osmosis system is less using solar versus diesel [18].…”

Section: Sustainable Energy Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…5. Note that in each case the full system was modeled using equations provided by Ortiz [24] for ED and Bilton [18] for RO. The applied pressure for RO was selected to be 9 bar above the osmotic pressure of the brine stream, since this was the median pressure difference observed in current village-scale RO plants visited by the authors.…”

Section: Selection Of Most Appropriate Desalination Technology Energementioning

confidence: 99%

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Energetic and Socioeconomic Justification for Solar-Powered Desalination Technology for Rural Indian Villages

Wright

Winter

2014

Volume 2A: 40th Design Automation Conference

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This paper provides justification for solar-powered electrodialysis desalination systems for rural Indian villages. It is estimated that 11% of India's 800 million people living in rural areas do not have access to an improved water source. If the source's quality in regards to biological, chemical, or physical contaminants is also considered, this percentage is even higher. User interviews conducted by the authors and in literature reveal that users judge the quality of their water source based on its aesthetic quality (taste, odor, and temperature). Seventy-three percent of Indian villages rely on groundwater as their primary drinking supply. However, saline groundwater underlies approximately 60% of the land area in India. Desalination is necessary in order to improve the aesthetics of this water (by reducing salinity below the taste threshold) and remove contaminants that cause health risks.Both technical and socioeconomic factors were considered to identify the critical design requirements for inland water desalination in India. An off-grid power system is among those requirements due to the lack of grid access or intermittent supply, problems faced by half of Indian villages. The same regions in India that have high groundwater salinity also have the advantage of high solar potential, making solar a primary candidate. Within the salinity range of groundwater found in inland India, electrodialysis would substantially reduce the energy consumption to desalinate compared to reverse osmosis, which is the * Address all correspondence to this author. standard technology used for village-level systems. This energy savings leads to a smaller solar array required for electrodialysis systems, translating to reduced capital costs.

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Section: Sustainable Energy Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Selection Of Most Appropriate Desalination Technology Energementioning

confidence: 99%

Energetic and Socioeconomic Justification for Solar-Powered Desalination Technology for Rural Indian Villages

Wright

Winter

2014

Volume 2A: 40th Design Automation Conference

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“…The total entropy generated in the RO module is the sum of the entropy change due to compositional changes, Equation (31), and the entropy generated in the depressurization of the product and brine streams, Equation (32).…”

Section: Reverse Osmosismentioning

confidence: 99%

An Economics-Based Second Law Efficiency

Mistry

Lienhard

2013

Entropy

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Second Law efficiency is a useful parameter for characterizing the energy requirements of a system in relation to the limits of performance prescribed by the Laws of Thermodynamics. However, since energy costs typically represent less than 50% of the overall cost of product for many large-scale plants (and, in particular, for desalination plants), it is useful to have a parameter that can characterize both energetic and economic effects. In this paper, an economics-based Second Law efficiency is defined by analogy to the exergetic Second Law efficiency and is applied to several desalination systems. It is defined as the ratio of the minimum cost of producing a product divided by the actual cost of production. The minimum cost of producing the product is equal to the cost of the primary source of energy times the minimum amount of energy required, as governed by the Second Law. The analogy is used to show that thermodynamic irreversibilities can be assigned costs and compared directly to non-energetic costs, such as capital expenses, labor and other operating costs. The economics-based Second Law efficiency identifies costly sources of irreversibility and places these irreversibilities in context with the overall system costs. These principles are illustrated through three case studies. First, a simple analysis of multistage flash and multiple effect distillation systems is performed using available data. Second, a complete energetic and economic model of a reverse osmosis plant is developed to show how economic costs are influenced by energetics. Third, a complete energetic and economic model of a solar powered direct contact membrane distillation system is developed to illustrate the true costs associated with so-called free energy sources.Keywords: Second Law efficiency; irreversibilities; economics; desalination; cogeneration; least work of separation; cost

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“…Energy consumption and electric power cogeneration (Bilton et al, 2011) In table 1 the energy requirements are separated into thermal energy which is used to heat the seawater and electrical energy which is used to drive pumps, compressors and auxiliary equipment. For seawater desalination, reverse osmosis requires the least amount of overall energy.…”

Section: Brackish Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Renewable Energy Systems: The Case of Desalination

Bourouni¹

2012

Modeling and Optimization of Renewable Energy Systems

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On the feasibility of community-scale photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis desalination systems for remote locations

Cited by 114 publications

References 16 publications

Energetic and Socioeconomic Justification for Solar-Powered Desalination Technology for Rural Indian Villages

Energetic and Socioeconomic Justification for Solar-Powered Desalination Technology for Rural Indian Villages

An Economics-Based Second Law Efficiency

Optimization of Renewable Energy Systems: The Case of Desalination

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