Solar driven, Low cost, Water desalination unit with Minimum Environmental impact SLoW ME

Summary

This proposal requests 50,000 USD for 12 months to develop the production of fresh water from saline resources using ͞solely͟ solar energy͘ The proposed setup called ͞unit͟ from hereafter uses the humidification dehumidification principle integrated with a refrigeration cycle. Solar energy will power the devices that runs the cycle as well as supply the heating needed. The different components of the unit will be arranged and sized such that the energy is effectively used under the constrains of space and budget. Two interrelated activities are proposed to accomplish the targeted goal. The first is fully monitored operation of a current desalination unit to feed back to modeling the cost, power need, and performance of the unit (and individual components). The second is modelling the performance of individual components of the unit. These individual models will be integrated into one code to evaluate new designs. This project has an impact on all the nation since it supplies drinking water. The impact is more pronounced in small remote communities where the national electric network is not available. These new communities do not have neither enough infrastructure to have pure water nor the needed budget to build large desalination plants. On the other hand, such communities have abundant solar resources. The HDH technology is currently the subject of many researches because of its large potential to develop and supply fresh water at competitive prices. This research studies optimizing the desalination unit by exploring innovative solutions for optimum use of materials and energy. Our study is targeting to demonstrate numerically and experimentally the opportunities of minimizing the initial cost, running cost, and environmental impact. Hence advancing the technology readiness level from being manufactured at pilot companies to being manufactured on large scale nationwide.

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