Renewable energy-driven innovative energy-efficient desalination technologies

Ghaffour, Noreddine; Lattemann, Sabine; Missimer, Thomas M.; Ng, Kim Choon; Sinha, Shahnawaz; Amy, Gary L.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.03.033

Cited by 255 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

107

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Since MD can operate at low feed temperatures, it has been successfully coupled with a range of renewable energy sources [16,17,18,19]. MD has been experimentally and numerically investigated for high-salinity applications, mostly using small-scale systems.…”

Section: Context: Desalination Up To High Salinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy efficiency of membrane distillation up to high salinity: Evaluating critical system size and optimal membrane thickness

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study presents a comprehensive analytical framework to design efficient single-stage membrane distillation (MD) systems for the desalination of feed streams up to high salinity. MD performance is quantified in terms of energy efficiency (represented as a gained output ratio, or GOR) and vapor flux, both of which together affect the specific cost of pure water production. Irrespective of the feed salinity, permeate or conductive gap MD (P/CGMD) performs better than direct contact MD (DCMD) when the heat transfer resistance of the gap (in P/CGMD) is lower than that of the external heat exchanger in DCMD. Air gap MD's (AGMD) better performance relative to the other configurations at high salinity and large system area can be explained in terms of its thicker 'effective membrane', which includes the air-gap region. CGMD and DCMD employing a thick membrane are also resilient to high salinity, similar to AGMD, while not being susceptible to the gap flooding that can harm AGMD's performance. A method is described to simultaneously determine the cost-optimal membrane thickness and system size as a function of the ratio of specific costs of heat energy and module area. At low salinity and small system size, GOR rises and flux declines with an increase in membrane area. For salty feed solutions, there exists a critical system size beyond which GOR also begins to decline. Since both GOR and flux are lower, no economic rationale favors operation above this critical size, irrespective of the costs of thermal energy and system area. A closed-form analytical expression for this critical system area is derived as a function of the feed salinity and two dimensionless ratios of heat transfer resistances within the MD module.Keywords: membrane distillation, high salinity, energy efficiency, system size, optimal membrane thickness * Corresponding author: lienhard@mit.

show abstract

Section: Context: Desalination Up To High Salinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy efficiency of membrane distillation up to high salinity: Evaluating critical system size and optimal membrane thickness

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Under these operating conditions (low temperatures and ambient pressure), corrosion is not an issue as no metallic materials are used in MD units. MD holds the potential of being efficient and cost effective separation process that can utilize low-grade waste heat or RE such as geothermal or solar energies [13,31,42,. In order to be cost-effective, with waste heat being considered as non-payable, specific energy consumption needed for pumping can potentially be lowered to 1 kWh/m 3 .…”

Section: Membrane Distillation (Md)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those regions are characterized by abundant solar energy; typical solar radiation ranges from 2200-2400 kWh/m 2 year [42]. The scarcity of water and the availability of solar radiation make solar energy the most suitable option to mitigate the water deficit [31].…”

Section: Solar Thermal Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thermal desalination such as MSF, MED and VC are energy intensive processes especially in areas with higher water salinity levels such as in the Middle East and GCC countries (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45) g/L) [41]. Those regions are characterized by abundant solar energy; typical solar radiation ranges from 2200-2400 kWh/m 2 year [42].…”

Section: Solar Thermal Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such low-temperature heat sources match well with the discarded or free heat from either low-grade waste heat or RE (solar or low-cost, low-enthalpy geothermal; see Section 4.5.2). Based on a demonstration solar-AD pilot plant constructed at KAUST and a life cycle assessment, Ng et al (21,32,42,146] showed that a specific energy consumption yields a value of <1.5 kWh_e/m 3 , which is unmatched by any other desalination process. Owing to the low evaporative temperatures of evaporator, no significant scaling is observed on the surfaces of evaporator tubes even with concentrations up to 250 ppt (parts per thousand) [21,32,[146][147][148][149][150].…”

Section: Adsorption Desalination (Ad)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Renewable energy-driven desalination technologies: A comprehensive review on challenges and potential applications of integrated systems

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the tremendous improvements in conventional desalination technologies, its wide use is still limited due primarily to high energy requirements which are currently met with expensive fossil fuels. The use of alternative energy sources is essential to meet the growing demand for water desalination. In the last few decades a lot of effort has being directed in the use of different renewable energy (RE) sources to run desalination processes. However, the expansion of these efforts towards larger scale plants is hampered by several techno-economic challenges. Several medium-scale RE-driven desalination plants have been installed worldwide. Nevertheless, most of these plants are connected to the electrical grid to assure a continuous energy supply for stable operation. Furthermore, RE is mostly used to produce electric power which can be used to run desalination systems. This review paper focusses on an integrated approach in using RE-driven with an emphasis on solar and geothermal desalination technologies. Innovative and sustainable desalination processes which are suitable for integrated RE systems are presented. An assessment of the benefits of these technologies and their limitations are also discussed.

show abstract

Wind Energy Powered Desalination Systems

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Renewable energy-driven innovative energy-efficient desalination technologies

Abstract: 10Globally, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) desalinates the largest capacity of seawater but

Cited by 255 publications

References 43 publications

Energy efficiency of membrane distillation up to high salinity: Evaluating critical system size and optimal membrane thickness

Energy efficiency of membrane distillation up to high salinity: Evaluating critical system size and optimal membrane thickness

Renewable energy-driven desalination technologies: A comprehensive review on challenges and potential applications of integrated systems

Wind Energy Powered Desalination Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About