Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, King Abdulaziz Road 1988, Najran 61441, Saudi Arabia.
College of Engineering, Muzahimiyah Branch, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan 23;18(3):1001. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18031001.
Seawater or brackish water desalination is largely powered by fossil fuels, raising concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the arid Middle East region. Many steps have been taken to implement solar resources to this issue; however, all attempts for all processing were concentrated on solar to electric conversion. To address these challenges, a small-scale reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination system that is in part powered by hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) solar collectors appropriate for a remote community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was designed and its power requirements calculated. This system provides both electricity to the pumps and low-temperature thermal energy to pre-heat the feedwater to reduce its viscosity, and thus to reduce the required pumping energy for the RO process and for transporting the feedwater. Results show that both thermal and electrical energy storage, along with conventional backup power, is necessary to operate the RO continuously and utilize all of the renewable energy collected by the PVT. A cost-optimal sizing of the PVT system is developed. It displays for a specific case that the hybrid PVT RO system employs 70% renewable energy while delivering desalinized water for a cost that is 18% less than the annual cost for driving the plant with 100% conventional electricity and no pre-heating of the feedwater. The design allows for the sizing of the components to achieve minimum cost at any desired level of renewable energy penetration.
海水或微咸水淡化主要由化石燃料提供动力，这引起了人们对温室气体排放的关注，特别是在干旱的中东地区。已经采取了许多措施来利用太阳能资源解决这个问题；然而，所有的尝试都是集中在太阳能到电能的转换上。为了解决这些挑战，设计了一个部分由光伏/光热（PVT）太阳能收集器混合驱动的小型反渗透（RO）海水淡化系统，适用于沙特阿拉伯王国（KSA）的一个偏远社区，并计算了其功率需求。该系统为泵提供电力，并为原水提供低温热能以预热原水，从而降低 RO 过程所需的泵送能量和输送原水的能量。结果表明，为了连续运行 RO 并利用 PVT 收集的所有可再生能源，需要热能和电能存储以及传统备用电源。开发了一种 PVT 系统的成本优化设计。对于特定情况，展示了混合 PVT RO 系统使用 70%的可再生能源，同时以比 100%传统电力驱动工厂且不预热原水的年度成本低 18%的成本提供淡化水。该设计允许对组件进行尺寸设计，以在任何所需的可再生能源渗透率水平下实现最低成本。
