Drinking Water From the Sea With Solar Energy

The European research team from CORDIS-the Community Research and Development Information Service has developed a low-cost desalination technology, but it has a high efficiency by using solar-energy.

As is known, desalination or distillation is the best way possible to get drinking water in the country is hot and dry, while surrounded by seas or oceans. One of the traditional distillation method used is based on reverse osmosis desalination (RO). This method pushes the water through a filtration membrane at high pressure. Unwanted substances in the water retained by the pores in the membrane filtration.

RO-based desalination requires considerable energy to put pressure on the sea water so that the process becomes costly and wasteful of energy. Researchers modify this distillation method. To reduce cost and energy consumption, they provide the mechanical energy required for RO system with Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) low temperature combined with the solar cells.

ORC is a thermodynamic cycle to recover heat (usually waste heat) and converted into a more useful form of energy, such as electricity or mechanical energy. Solar cells can supply thermal energy to the ORC, which will then produce mechanical energy to put pressure on the water.

As quoted from Physorg, As quoted from Physorg, much attention has been given recently to the potential of supercritical fluids used in the ORC for optimised thermal efficiency in conversion of waste heat to electricity. European investigators delivered an innovative stand-alone solar desalination system based on a low-temperature supercritical ORC with funding for the RO-Solar-Rankine project.

Schematic program of the low-temperature solar Rankine cycle system. (Picture from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/)

The system eliminated the need for energy storage and exhibited higher efficiency translating to higher fresh water production rates. Investigators also examined environmental as well as socioeconomic impacts of the new system and developed a strategy for market penetration.

Commercial implementation of the RO-SOLAR-Rankine system should enable climates such as those in the Mediterranean to exploit their abundant solar energy to produce freshwater from equally abundant saltwater. *** [SEPTI | PHYSORG | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 11102012]
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