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Water Desalination Plants Driven by Hybrid Energy Conversion Systems

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "J: Thermal Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 8 May 2024 | Viewed by 5589

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Prof. Dr. Pietro Zunino

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical, Energy, Management and Transport Engineering, University of Genova, I-16145 Genova, Italy
Interests: turbomachinery; aeroengines; renewable energy conversion systems; hydraulic turbines and pumps; gas turbines

Dr. Ekaterina Sokolova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Atomic and Heat- and -Power Engineering, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, 195251 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Interests: thermal engineering; nuclear desalination

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwater demand is continuously increasing around the world, and several technologies for desalination processes are currently available and widely employed; however, seawater desalination is an energy-intensive process, and most seawater desalination plants are currently operating based on traditional power plants, which create a large carbon footprint on the environment.

The development of integrated power plants for electricity production and seawater desalination using hybrid renewable energy sources is an achievable alternative for increasing sustainability, reliability, and overall performance of desalination units. In such a context, it is crucial to consider all the possible synergies among the locally available energy sources and an integrated management of the energy request by desalination processes.

This Special Issue aims to pull together recent developments in the possibility of coupling traditional heat and power systems and renewable energy sources with hybrid desalination plants (HDPs). The scope of this Special Issue includes novel hybrid energy conversion systems and component configurations designed for use in water desalination plants to promote low-carbon footprint solutions to the required electrical and thermal energy consumption. Fundamental and applied research papers covering hybrid energy sources as well as review papers with new perspectives will be considered.

The scope of this Special Issue includes but is not limited to the following topics:

Seawater desalination systems driven by hybrid energy sources;
Novel hybrid energy schemes and efficiency improvement of co-generation plants;
Modeling and simulation of desalination systems, hybrid conversion systems, and components;
Process economics, life cycle analysis (LCA), and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA);
Thermal, potential, and electrical energy storage systems coupled with power conversion units.

Prof. Dr. Pietro Zunino
Dr. Ekaterina Sokolova
Guest Editors

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Keywords

seawater desalination
renewable and hybrid energy sources
hybrid energy conversion systems and components
energy storage systems

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3639 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Productivity Augmentation of Solar Stills by Coupled Copper Tubes and Parabolic Fins

by Ajay Kumar Kaviti, Magadapalli Teja, Oruganti Madhukar, Polaboina Bhanu Teja, Vakapalli Aashish, Gembali Srinivasa Gupta, Akkala Sivaram and Vineet Singh Sikarwar

Energies 2023, 16(18), 6606; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16186606 - 14 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 800

Abstract

A solar still is an eco-friendly device that makes use of ample solar energy for the purification of water. The main objective of this research is to increase the yield output of a double-slope solar still (DSSS) by coupling the basin liner with copper tubes and parabolic fins. In this work, the experiments were supervised for nine days with three different cases. For these experiments, copper tubes with thickness of 2 mm, outer diameter of 32 mm, inner diameter of 28 mm, and parabolic fins with 30 mm diameter and 50 mm height were considered. In the first case, non-coated copper tubes (NCCTs) were used, in the second case, coated copper tubes (CCTs) were employed, and in the last case, coated copper tubes with a combination of parabolic fins (CCTPFs) were used. The MSS (case-III) demonstrated a substantial yearly productivity enhancement of 57.79%, establishing its superiority in terms of output because of its higher daily distillate yield of 1215 mL/day in contrast to CSS. When compared, case III—CCTPF—performed better than case II—CCT—by 35.75%. The CSS and MSS both contributed to a decrease in the pH of the saline water, which went from 8.18 to 7.64 and 7.23, respectively. In comparison to the MSS and CSS, which had 0.428 mg/L and 0.569 mg/L of fluoride ions, respectively, brine water had a fluoride ion level of 0.734 mg/L. Total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration before desalination was 440 ppm and it was minimized to 20 ppm with MSS and 55 ppm with CSS, respectively, post-desalination. The corresponding cost per liter (CPL) of MSS and CSS is USD 0.053 and USD 0.040, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Desalination Plants Driven by Hybrid Energy Conversion Systems)

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21 pages, 1941 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Assessment of Coupled Concentrated Photovoltaic-Thermal and Vacuum Membrane Distillation (CPVT-VMD) System for Water Desalination

by Juan Pablo Santana, Carlos I. Rivera-Solorio, Jia Wei Chew, Yong Zen Tan, Miguel Gijón-Rivera and Iván Acosta-Pazmiño

Energies 2023, 16(3), 1541; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031541 - 03 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1532

Abstract

Numerical simulations were carried out to assess the technical and economic feasibility of a solar water desalination system that has a novel hybrid Concentrating Photovoltaic Thermal (CPVT) collector coupled with a Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) process. A special characteristic of this CPVT is its triangular receiver with PV cells facing the reflecting surface. This type of receiver has the advantage of generating more electricity with less PV surface area and great potential to be used to hybridize conventional parabolic thermal collectors. TRNSYS was employed to analyze the annual performance of the CPVT-VMD system evaluating parameters such as solar fraction, specific permeate production and specific energy production for different coastal cities. In the dynamic simulations, local annual weather data and specific information about the characteristics and operating conditions of a real CPVT collector and a VMD module were considered. From the parametric analysis the optimal surface area of collectors and the input temperature of the VDM module were determined. A maximum specific permeate of 218.410 m ³/m²_VMD for Acapulco, MX, and a minimum of 170.365 m ³/m²_VMD for Singapore, SG, were achieved for the proposed CPVT-VMD system of four solar collectors with an operating set temperature of 55 °C. An economic profit was found after 7 years for Acapulco city, which showed great potential to use solar energy from hybrid CPVT collectors for a VMD process to provide freshwater in coastal cities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Desalination Plants Driven by Hybrid Energy Conversion Systems)

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13 pages, 2284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility of Hybrid Desalination Plants Coupled with Small Gas Turbine CHP Systems

by Ekaterina Sokolova, Khashayar Sadeghi, Seyed Hadi Ghazaie, Dario Barsi, Francesca Satta and Pietro Zunino

Energies 2022, 15(10), 3618; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15103618 - 15 May 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2406

Abstract

Nowadays, several technologies for desalination processes are available and widely employed. However, they consume a considerable amount of energy and involve high capital and operating costs. Therefore, the techno-economic analysis of a system coupling different energy sources with the desalination processes is of value. The possibility of coupling a small gas turbine combined heat and power system (GT CHP) with hybrid desalination plants (HDPs) has been assessed in this study. The proposed gas turbine power generation system, based on a single-stage centrifugal compressor and an uncooled centripetal turbine, provides design simplicity and reasonable installation costs for the power generating plant. The hybrid desalination technique, based on the use of two different desalination technologies, i.e., Reverse Osmosis (RO) and a thermal desalination process, has been chosen to better exploit the electrical and thermal energy produced by the mini CHP plant. The proposed solution is numerically investigated from both thermodynamic and economic points of view, and the results of the thermodynamic analysis of the cycle are used as input for the evaluation of the amount of freshwater produced and of costs. The economic assessment of standalone desalination systems is also shown for the comparison with the hybrid solutions here proposed. Results show that the total cost of the water produced by MED + RO was less than the total cost of the water obtained by MSF + RO, and that the energy cost of MED + RO hybrid desalination system was about 15% less than that for stand-alone RO desalination technology. Thus, the MED + RO hybrid desalination system can be considered a promising solution for the coupling with the proposed mini GT CHP plant, which, due to the small size and cost, as well as the easy installation, can be easily applied in off-grid or remote areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Desalination Plants Driven by Hybrid Energy Conversion Systems)

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