Design and Energy Requirements of a Photovoltaic-Thermal Powered Water Desalination Plant for the Middle East

Saeed Alqaed, Jawed Mustafa and Fahad Awjah Almehmadi
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Saeed Alqaed: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, King Abdulaziz Road 1988, Najran 61441, Saudi Arabia
Jawed Mustafa: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, King Abdulaziz Road 1988, Najran 61441, Saudi Arabia
Fahad Awjah Almehmadi: College of Engineering, Muzahimiyah Branch, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Seawater or brackish water desalination is largely powered by fossil fuels, raising concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the arid Middle East region. Many steps have been taken to implement solar resources to this issue; however, all attempts for all processing were concentrated on solar to electric conversion. To address these challenges, a small-scale reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination system that is in part powered by hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) solar collectors appropriate for a remote community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was designed and its power requirements calculated. This system provides both electricity to the pumps and low-temperature thermal energy to pre-heat the feedwater to reduce its viscosity, and thus to reduce the required pumping energy for the RO process and for transporting the feedwater. Results show that both thermal and electrical energy storage, along with conventional backup power, is necessary to operate the RO continuously and utilize all of the renewable energy collected by the PVT. A cost-optimal sizing of the PVT system is developed. It displays for a specific case that the hybrid PVT RO system employs 70% renewable energy while delivering desalinized water for a cost that is 18% less than the annual cost for driving the plant with 100% conventional electricity and no pre-heating of the feedwater. The design allows for the sizing of the components to achieve minimum cost at any desired level of renewable energy penetration.

Keywords: PV-thermal; desalination; hybrid; solar collector; optimization; middle east (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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