 Efficiency in the use of solar thermal energy of small membrane desalination systems for decentralized water productionG. Zaragoza, A. Ruiz-Aguirre and E. Guillén-Burrieza Applied Energy, 2014, vol. 130, issue C, 499 pages Abstract: The demand of freshwater has surpassed the renewable limit and new water sources are associated with an intensive use of energy. Coincidence between scarcity of water and availability of solar radiation makes solar energy the most suitable option to mitigate the water deficit. This paper analyzes the use of energy for decentralized water production using membrane desalination systems fed with solar energy. An analysis is performed based on experimental results from the most advanced commercial prototypes of different technologies of membrane distillation using various configurations, i.e., air-gap, permeate-gap and vacuum; with flat-plate and spiral-wound membranes. The systems operate with thermal energy, although there is some electrical consumption for pumping and in some cases for sustaining vacuum. The thermal energy requirements per unit volume of water produced are assessed in each case, considering the effect of different operational conditions like the temperature regime and the salinity of the input water. Keywords: Solar energy; Energy efficiency; Energy–water nexus; Solar desalination (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:130:y:2014:i:c:p:491-499 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.02.024 Access Statistics for this article Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier |
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