Small-Scale Desalination Plant Driven by Solar Energy for Isolated Communities

Angelica Liponi, Claretta Tempesti, Andrea Baccioli and Lorenzo Ferrari
Additional contact information
Angelica Liponi: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, 1, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Claretta Tempesti: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, 1, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Andrea Baccioli: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, 1, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Lorenzo Ferrari: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, 1, 56122 Pisa, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: In the last years, an increasing number of countries has been affected by water shortage. Seawater desalination driven by solar energy, which is usually available in arid regions, might be a solution to satisfy the freshwater demand. In this study, the feasibility of a stand-alone multi-effect desalination (MED) plant driven by solar energy for an isolated community was studied. The system was made up of a solar field, a MED unit, and a thermal storage that mitigated solar energy fluctuations. Simulations with different top brine temperature and inclination and number of the solar panels were carried out in Matlab and Aspen Plus on an hourly basis by considering one typical meteorological year for ambient temperature and solar radiation. Two different sources of electrical energy were considered: A photovoltaic (PV) field and a diesel generator. The results were compared from an energetic and economic point of view, by considering the adoption of plastic as a material for MED heat exchangers. The maximum water production was obtained with December as the design month. Polytetrafluoroethylene heat exchangers allowed the cost of water to be reduced up to 9.5% compared to conventional exchangers. The lowest cost of water (7.09 $/ m 3 ) was obtained with September as the design month and a tilt angle of 45° with the PV field as the electrical power source.

Keywords: solar energy; multi-effect distillation; seawater desalination; stand alone; thermal storage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/15/3864/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/15/3864/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:15:p:3864-:d:391173

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().