Setting up of a cost-effective continuous desalination plant based on coupling solar and geothermal energy

The aim of the work was to describe and test a solar desalination system for salt and brackish water desalination considering a real application, in order to provide detailed technical features of a future plant based on the calculated data by the modelling approach. The main innovative aspect of the studied solar desalination system consists in reproducing, in a restricted environment, the water cycle that commonly occurs in nature. The process is a thermal distillation process based on a first humidification phase and a second phase of air dehumidification, exploiting, at steady-state conditions, only solar thermal energy, and it is capable to work 24 h day1. It is built with materials that are commonly used in the building sector, reducing construction costs. The findings have led to a system easily integrable in real scale scenarios to recover fresh water from a solution of salt or brackish water, for both potable uses and process uses. Thanks to these technological solutions, a low specific energy consumption (5.5 kWh m(3) of water) is obtained, envisaging lower running cost.

Automated summary

The research describes an innovative solar desalination system that replicates the water cycle process in a restricted environment for salt and brackish water desalination. This system, built with common building materials, can be easily integrated into real applications to recover fresh water, with the potential for low energy consumption and operating costs.