Cairo University

Faculty of Engineering
Mechanical Power Engineering

Renewable energy (4060)

Report 1

Name: Omar Ragab Ahmed Abdelhamid.

SEC: 2

B.N: 50

Submitted To: Prof. Mostafa El sallask.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction: .................................................................................................................................. 3
2. solar desalination technologies:..................................................................................................... 4
3. Markets and applications ............................................................................................................... 4
4. Renewable and esp. Solar Power Technologies ............................................................................. 4
5. Desalination Techniques: ............................................................................................................... 5
6. Desalination Technologies: ............................................................................................................ 7
7. Thermal Desalination Processes: ................................................................................................... 8
8. Membrane-Based Processes .......................................................................................................... 9
9. Coupling Solar Energy and Desalination: ..................................................................................... 11
10. References: .............................................................................................................................. 12
11. Conclusion:............................................................................................................................... 13
1. Introduction:
• The freshwater resources in the world are not enough to face human growth, the increasing
needs and the drought of the climate are increasingly insufficient and moreover threatened
by all kinds of pollution. The drinking water crisis is strongly reviving the interest in
developing desalination techniques that are less expensive, simpler, robusta, reliable, if
possible, less energy consuming and respectful of the environment.

• It is in this logic that water desalination stations are part of the process since they make it
possible to produce drinking water from sea water or brackish water using special
techniques. Solar distillation is a less energy-consuming desalination method because it
uses a free source of renewable energy.

• Work on conventional solar stills where evaporation and condensation take place in the
same enclosure showed that the efficiency is low. The work is then oriented towards the
separation of the two phenomena where the efficiency of this type of still is higher. These
stills are named humidification-dehumidification solar stills. These types of stills have been
the subject of numerous studies to improve efficiency such that the solar collectors used
are flat collectors. In this review paper, different methods and techniques of desalination
systems will be presented and evaluated with other enhancement methods.

• Many desalination systems have been developed to overcome the water shortage problem,
but most of these techniques require intensive energy. Therefore, utilizing renewable
energy for desalination is considered as the most important and economical method for
producing potable water with low cost. The conclusions from steps water desalination using
solar energy.
2. solar desalination technologies:
Several concepts for the utilization of solar energy for desalination have been proposed.
However, desalination powered by renewable energy is still not widely applied. Its
development is limited to pilot plants and small units, mainly located in remote areas.

3. Markets and applications

of renewable desalination can be best identified by the division of such plants in representative
capacity ranges. The required desalination capacity and the eventual availability of the
electrical grid plays a crucial role in the selection of the technologies to be applied. This report
briefly describes some of the existing concepts, with a focus on CSP- and PV-based
applications for medium and large-scale applications.

4. Renewable and esp. Solar Power Technologies

The MENA Region (Middle East and North Africa) has huge renewable energy potential. In
particular, solar and wind energy will play an even more important role in the future energy
supply of these countries. With this regard, the most cost-competitive technologies will be CSP,
PV and Wind power. Such technologies can also be used to reduce dependence of energy-
consuming desalination plants from fossil fuels.

Figure A1: Solar energy desalination matching/own illustration.

Concentrating solar thermal power plants have the capability for thermal energy storage and
alternative hybrid operation with fossil or biofuels, allowing them to provide firm power
capacity on demand.
PV is a highly modular technology, which directly transforms incoming solar irradiation into
electricity, PV can be used for on-grid and off -grid applications, starting from a few watts and
up to several megawatt plants. The largest market share is currently taken by crystalline silicon
technologies.
The advantage of CSP for providing constant base load capacity for seawater desalination can
be appreciated in Figure A2 for a time-series modeling of one week of operation of equivalent
wind, PV and CSP systems with 10 MW installed power capacity,
each at Hurghada, Egypt: while wind and photovoltaic power systems deliver fluctuating power
and either allow only for intermitting solar operation or require considerable conventional
backup, a concentrating solar power plant can deliver stable and constant power capacity, due
to its thermal energy storage capability and to the possibility of hybrid operation with –
typically – conventional / fossil fuel.

5. Desalination Techniques:
liquid by the condensation process in nature, phase change solar desalination is utilized to
create rain, which is our planet's primary source of fresh water. The driving force, which
includes pressure, concentration, and temperature gradient, impacts the membrane process.
Solar energy can also be utilized to desalinate saltwater by providing electricity, which is
used to power the membrane processes. The foremost imperative innovations utilized in
different desalination forms are scheduled in Table (1).
1) Reverse Osmosis (RO):
• Reverse osmosis is one of the most widely used desalination processes. It involves forcing
saline water through a semipermeable membrane under high pressure.
• The membrane allows water molecules to pass through while rejecting salts and other
impurities, producing freshwater on one side and a concentrated brine solution on the other.

2) Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSF):

• Multi-stage flash distillation involves heating seawater in multiple stages, each at
progressively lower pressures.
• As the water is heated, it evaporates, leaving behind concentrated brine. The vapor is then
condensed to produce freshwater.

3) Multi-Effect Distillation (MED):

• MED desalination is often used in medium to large-scale plants and is suitable for both
seawater and brackish water desalination.

4) Humidification-Dehumidification (HD or HDH):

• HD desalination involves humidifying air with saline water, then cooling the humidified
air to condense freshwater.
• This process utilizes the natural evaporation and condensation cycles to produce freshwater
and is often coupled with renewable energy sources such as solar power.
• Humidification Dehumidification Desalination (HDD) is a thermal desalination process
that utilizes the principles of evaporation and condensation to produce freshwater from
seawater or brackish water. It operates through a series of steps involving humidification,
dehumidification, and condensation. Here's an overview of the HDD process:

1. Humidification:
• Seawater is first pumped into an evaporator where it is heated, typically using solar
energy or waste heat from other industrial processes.
• The heated seawater enters the evaporator chamber, where it evaporates, converting
liquid water into water vapor.
• As the water vaporizes, it becomes humidified air, which is then transferred to the
dehumidifier.
2. Dehumidification:
• In the dehumidifier, the humidified air is cooled down, causing the water vapor to
condense back into liquid form.
• This process effectively removes freshwater from the air, leaving behind a concentrated
brine solution.
• The freshwater collected from condensation is then collected and stored for further
treatment and distribution.

3. Condensation and Freshwater Collection:

• The condensed freshwater is collected and stored in a separate reservoir or tank.
• Depending on the quality of the freshwater obtained, additional treatment steps such as
filtration, disinfection, and mineralization may be required before it can be used for
drinking or other purposes.

4. Brine Disposal:
• The concentrated brine solution remaining after dehumidification contains the extracted
salts and other dissolved solids from the seawater.
• Proper disposal of the brine is essential to prevent environmental damage. Options for
disposal include dilution and discharge into the ocean, evaporation ponds, or treatment
for resource recovery.

6. Desalination Technologies:
The majority of the existing desalination plants belong to two groups of
desalination technologies, i.e. thermal desalination technologies and membrane-
based desalination technologies.
7. Thermal Desalination Processes:
Thermal processes effectively treat seawater with high-saline content and low-quality (e. g.
high turbidity, presence of algae or eventual oil spillages). For brackish water application,
Reserved Osmosis (RO) is typically preferred. This is due to the fact that the energy
consumption of RO plants is roughly proportional to the feed water salinity, while the energy
consumption of thermal processes is almost independent of the salt content of the source water.
In order to minimize the energy consumption per unit of produced drinking water, thermal
desalination plants typically are designed as co-generation plants in combination with a steam
turbine or a combined cycle. This means that the heating steam required for evaporation of the
feed water is provided by the waste steam of the steam turbine at a temperature ranging between
approx. 65° C and 115° C. The operation of such desalination plants is relatively simple.

The long track records on existing plants demonstrate their reliability and stability of operation.
The quality of the product water is very high (approx. 10–20 ppm, i.e. almost pure distillate).
These characteristics made multi-flash stage (MSF) the favored desalination technology in the
MENA region in previous decades. As the name suggests, MSF is based on the flashing of a
share of the feed water in a number of chambers with different pressures. The gain output ratio
(GOR), which is defined as the ratio between distillate mass flow and heating steam mass flow
typically ranges between 8 and 10. MSF is typically operated as a utility scale desalination
plant. Single units can reach 90,000 m³/d. The main drawback of MSF is the high specific
energy requirement (heat and electricity).

In addition, investment cost and seawater consumption are higher than in Reserve Osmosis
(RO) plants (Table 1). Multi Effect Distillation (MED) also consists of a series of evaporation
chambers. The main difference in comparison to MSF plants is the mechanism of vapor
generation (evaporation, i.e. temperature driven vapor generation instead of flashing, i.e.
pressure- driven vapor generation).

In MED plants the feed water is sprayed onto the external surface of a tube bundle. The heat
required for the evaporation is provided by the condensation of steam flowing inside the tubes.
The vapor is then used as heating steam (inside the tubes) in the successive stage. The heating
steam in the first effect has to be provided externally (typically waste heat from a steam
turbine). The higher the number of stages, the lower is the specific thermal energy consumption
(as the vapor is recycled several times) and the higher the GOR.

However, the increment of the number of stages reduces the available net temperature
difference between two consecutive stages, which leads to higher cost for the heat exchanger.

MED with thermal vapor compression (TVC) provides approx. 35 % higher GOR than the
MED without TVC, which is obtained with the upgrade of a portion of the vapor produced in
the last effects by means of a thermo-compressor. However, in this case, medium pressure
steam is required (temperature higher than approx. 150° C).

8. Membrane-Based Processes
Reverse Osmosis (RO) is widely used for seawater (SW) as well as for brackish water (BW)
applications. RO currently is the preferred option of desalination for drinking water purposes.

The market penetration of RO in the last decades is due to progresses in membrane technology
(e. g. higher salt rejection, longer lifetime) and to increased system reliability.

The basic idea in RO is the application of an external pressure (up to 80 bar) to a concentrated
solution such as seawater, which makes possible obtaining a flow of almost salt-free permeate
(150 – 500 ppm, depending on the system configuration) on the other side of a selective
membrane.

In particular cases, the removal of Boron from the product water represents a challenging issue.

Concerning energy consumption, electricity requirements of RO depend on the source water

salinity. The introduction of so-called energy recovery devices (ERD) allowed dramatically to
reduce the overall energy consumption of RO plants by recycling a large share of the energy
(i.e. pressure) still contained in the brine.
RO systems are highly modular and therefore they are well suited for small-scale as well as for
utility-scale applications. Investment costs are lower than for MED and MSF.

Table 2: Preliminary comparison of main desalination processes

9. Coupling Solar Energy and Desalination:
Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants are technically suitable for the combination with both
MED and RO desalination plants, while PV can be combined with RO (Figure 1). Several
studies on renewable desalination have been performed.
One of the main advantages of such combinations is that CSP is able to nearly provide base
load power supply due to the integration of relatively cheap (i. e. in comparison with electrical
storages) and efficient thermal energy storage. In the case of thermal desalination (MED), heat
supply for water evaporation is provided by the waste steam from the CSP turbine, which is
extracted at approx. 70 °C (or slightly lower) and is condensed in the first stage of the
desalination plant. MED is preferred to MSF due to the higher efficiency (i.e. lower energy
consumption, lower operation temperature), as has been previously highlighted.

Regarding MED with TVC, the capital cost can be reduced in comparison to the MED without
TVC. However, this advantage has to be paid in terms of a higher heat cost. MED-TVC systems
seem to be attractive whenever low-cost heat is available (e.g. waste heat, low fuel cost) or if
the required water-to-power ratio is high.

The eventual combination of a CSP collector for the exclusive heat supply of an MED plant is
in principle feasible, but not economically (and thermodynamically) competitive.
Alternatively, or in combination with this configuration, a portion of the generated electricity
can be used to feed a RO plant. The main advantage of this combination is the fact that only
electrical energy is needed.

This means that if an electrical network is available, the CSP power plant -but also other
renewable or conventional power plants- can be located independently from the desalination
site. This means that the CSP plant could be located on a site with optimal DNI resources and
best suited terrain.

On the contrary, in the case of CSP/MED, the steam turbine and the solar field have to be
located in proximity (max. few kilometers distance) of the MED plant. In addition, reverse
osmosis can be coupled with PV plants. The combination of PV and RO is another interesting
option for solar desalination. Such a combination offers a series of advantages.

The most important one is the high modularity of both PV plant and RO unit. This feature
makes this combination an excellent choice for the supply of drinking water for small
communities within insulated and water-scarce areas. Without proper backup for the power
supply (i.e. battery, backup power plant and/ or grid) the operation of the RO will be
intermittent. Due to the fluctuating nature of solar resources, electricity generation needs to be
stabilized by power conditioning equipment and energy storage devices (e. g. batteries) in order
to guarantee proper operation of the desalination plant. The transient operation of the RO plant
is related to lower efficiency (startup procedures, stand-by cost) and shorter lifetime of the
membranes (wear-and-tear).
10. References:

1) Hongfei Zheng, in Solar Energy Desalination Technology, 2017.

2) Available online: https://www.lenntech.com/water-food-agriculture.
3) Raluy RG, Serra L, Uche J, et al. Life-cycle assessment of desalination
technologies integrated with energy production systems. Desalination, 2004,
volume 167, Pages 445–58.
4) Water Desalination Technologies in the ESCWA Member Countries. UN-
ESSWA, ASIN: E/ESCWA/TECH/2001/3. United Nations, 2001, 172.
5) M.N.A. Hawlader, Prasanta K. Dey, Sufyan Diab and Chan Ying Chung, Solar
assisted heat pumpdesalination system, Desalination, Volume 168, 2004,
Pages 49-54.
6) A.S. Nafey, H.E.S. Fath and S.O. El-Helaby, A. Soliman, Solar desalination
using humidification–dehumidification processes. Part II. An experimental
investigation, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 45, Issues 7–8,
2004, Pages 1263-1277.
7) K. Lalzad, I. W. Eames, G. G. Maidment and T. G. Karayiannis, Investigation
of a novel small-scale solar desalination plant, April 2006, International
Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies 1(2), Pages 149-166.
11. Conclusion:
• Water desalination using solar energy offers a sustainable and environmentally friendly
solution to address water scarcity challenges around the world. Harnessing abundant
sunlight to power desalination processes not only reduces dependence on fossil fuels but
also minimizes carbon emissions and environmental impact. Solar desalination
technologies, such as solar stills and solar-powered reverse osmosis systems, have
demonstrated promising results in producing freshwater from seawater or brackish water.

• Despite challenges such as intermittent of solar energy and initial investment costs, ongoing
research and development efforts are driving advancements in solar desalination
technology, improving efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Integration of energy
storage solutions and innovative system designs further enhance reliability and
performance, making solar desalination increasingly viable for both small-scale and large-
scale applications.

• Moreover, solar desalination projects have the potential to empower communities in water-
stressed regions, providing access to clean and reliable freshwater for drinking, agriculture,
and industrial purposes. By promoting sustainable water management practices and
reducing reliance on finite water resources, solar desalination contributes to long-term
water security and resilience in the face of climate change and growing water demands.

• In the coming years, continued investment in solar desalination research, supportive

policies, and international collaboration will be essential to unlock the full potential of this
technology and address water scarcity challenges on a global scale. With ongoing
innovation and commitment to sustainability, water desalination using solar energy holds
promise as a key solution to meet the world's growing water needs while preserving our
planet's precious resources for future generations.