Thermo-Economic Assessment of Photovoltaic/Thermal Pan-Els-Powered Reverse Osmosis Desalination Unit Combined with Preheating Using Geothermal Energy

Habib Ben Bacha (), Abdelkader Saad Abdullah, Mutabe Aljaghtham, Reda S. Salama (), Mohamed Abdelgaied and Abd Elnaby Kabeel
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Habib Ben Bacha: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering in Al-Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Abdelkader Saad Abdullah: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering in Al-Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Mutabe Aljaghtham: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering in Al-Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Reda S. Salama: Basic Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Delta University for Science and Technology, Gamasa 11152, Egypt
Mohamed Abdelgaied: Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt
Abd Elnaby Kabeel: Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Recently, the reverse osmosis (RO) process is widely used in the field of desalinating brackish water and seawater to produce freshwater, but the disadvantage of using this technology is the increase in the rates of electrical energy consumption necessary to manage these units. To reduce the rates of electrical energy consumption in RO desalination plants, geothermal energy and photovoltaic/thermal panels were used as preheating units to heat the feed water before entering RO desalination plants. The proposed system in this study consists of an RO desalination plant with an energy recovery device, photovoltaic/thermal panels, and a geothermal energy extraction unit. To evaluate the system performance, three incorporated models were studied and validated by previous experimental data. The results indicated that incorporating the geothermal energy and photovoltaic/thermal panels with the RO desalination plants has positive effects in terms of increasing productivity and reducing the rates of specific power consumption in RO desalination plants. The average saving in the specific power consumption for utilizing the thermal recovery system of PV panels and geothermal energy as preheating units reached 29.1% and 40.75% for the treatment of seawater and brackish water, respectively. Additionally, the economic feasibility showed the saving in the cost of freshwater produced from the RO desalination plants for incorporating both geothermal energy and photovoltaic panels with a thermal recovery system with reverse osmosis desalination plants of up to 39.6%.

Keywords: RO desalination system; photovoltaic/thermal panels; geothermal energy; productivity improvement; economic analysis; energy saving (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: 2023
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