The Utilization of Solar Energy in a Multiple-Effect Desalinization System

State of the Art of Desalination in Mexico

“…The same prototype was installed in Puerto Chale, Baja California Sur, with a catchment area of 300 m 2 consisting of 6 solar channel stills with the aim of producing 1 m 3 /d. The best production recorded for this plant was 1.6 m 3 /d [73].…”

“…In 1963, the University of Arizona, in collaboration with the University of Sonora, developed a system for the desalination of seawater activated with low-temperature solar energy. Hodges et al [73] report that the system is composed of a flat plate solar collector field with a plastic cover (836 m 2 ), a packed tower humidifier with a height of 14.32 m and a diameter between 1.21 and 1.52 m, and a finned tube heat exchanger used as a dehumidifier through which 13.62 m 3 /h of seawater circulates. The seawater to be desalinated is used as a cooling medium in the dehumidifier and then transported to the solar collector field to increase its temperature by between 5 and 10 • C. Finally, it is atomized in the humidifier to evaporate and diffuse into the air stream, entering the dehumidifier to produce between 9.46 and 10.92 m 3 /d of distilled water.…”

“…The dimensions of the prototype were 5 m wide, 10 m long, and 2.5 m high; their system produced 0.175 m 3 /d in a typical day. An LSSS system was built and put into operation at El Partido Island, Baja California Sur, in 1993 [73].…”

Humidification Dehumidification Desalination

“…A number of studies have looked at varying the water-to-air mass flow rate, , ratio within the component to decrease these differences and thus lower entropy generation. The Puerto Penãsco HDH system previously mentioned included four extractions of air from the humidifier to the dehumidifier [8,9]. Muller-Holst [16,26] cited the variability of the stream-to-stream temperature difference as a major source of entropy generation and suggested the continuous variation of the mass flow rate of air through extraction/injection to keep the stream-to-stream temperature difference constant throughout the system.…”

“…HDH systems have sometimes been categorized as small scale systems (< 1 m 3 /day), but both the initial and current history contradict this. During the early 1960's, an 18 m 3 /day solar-heated HDH pilot was built in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico by Hodges and coworkers from the University of Arizona [9]. More recently, Gradiant Corporation has used HDH systems larger than 2,000 m 3 /day to purify produced water from oil and gas operations, at salinities from 100,000 to 250,000 mg/kg [2,10].…”